Some of my favourite memories are of my brother, various friends, and me making dens and playing hide and seek behind the trees in the woods near our house, splashing in mud and looking for bugs.
If you think back to one of your most vivid early childhood memories, one where your sense of wonder has perhaps been unmatched since, where were you? What were you doing? Who were you with?
Research shows that for many people these childhood memories are often rooted in experiences with the natural world. It’s outdoors that we feel most in our element, and the joy of discovering the environment and nature is tapped into This all makes a big impression on us at a young age, and unsurprisingly where we’re most open to learning new things.
Sadly, these opportunities are a lot harder to come by for children now than they were for their parents and grandparents. This is because of many reasons including lack of access to green spaces, budget and curriculum limits for teachers, and changing preferences of how families spend their free time and money.
I have two reactions to this news. There’s obviously the sentimental part of me that thinks it’s a real shame that loads of children don’t get many chances to get a bit mucky, pick up a few bugs, and get really up close and personal with nature when they’re young. Secondly there’s the environmentalist in me that sees this as worrying as far as getting the next generation to really care about the environment and nature goes. How are they going to get passionate about the world around them if they never get the chance to experience it? How can we expect younger generations to fight to protect it if they don’t even know what it’s like?
It’s with this in mind that loads of RSPB reserves held events around the today to show MPs and government how important it is to give children opportunities to learn outside the classroom walls.
Here at RSPB Fairburn Ings we held an “Every Child Outdoors” day of our own. On the 24 June Barwick-in-elmet Church of England school came and had a day being shown different habitats by the reserve field teachers.
Linda McAvan, our local MEP, also came and saw some of the great work that we do to teach kids about the natural world. They went pond-dipping and looked at different insects and birds on the reserve. Hopefully it’ll get the kids inspired so they can make some amazing memories of their own!