Hello, and welcome to another Starry Skies blog!
In this post I’m going to be talking about my visit to the Timber Festival (5th – 7th July) with colleagues from S.H.E.D, CivicLab and the Nature Connectedness Research Group at the University of Derby.
At the festival we will be running lots of events, but the two I am going to mention here are…
‘Tune into Nature at Night’
&
‘Wild Wonder: Connecting Families with Nature’
I’ll be updating and reposting this event blog once we have been.
So, please stay tuned to see how things turn out!
About the Activities
Below you will find some useful information about the activities: what inspired us to create them, what they involve doing, and how they can help you form a closer relationship with nature, whilst having fun!
Wild Wonder:
Connecting Families with Nature
The Wild Wonder activity is based on some recent work that my colleagues, Drs Fiona Holland and Caroline Harvey, and I have been doing for the Family Hub Derby. The Family Hubs were keen to use evidence-based activities and a resource that would be user-friendly and straight-forward for parents, teachers, early years practitioners, and Family Hub staff to just ‘grab and go’.
The culmination of this year-long piece of work led to the creation of our handbook, and you can download the Connecting Families with Nature: A Nature Connectedness Activity Handbook here.
We worked with some incredible designers (Open & Honest) where you can currently see all of the work they have done.
The handbook includes twelve straightforward activities that are nice and easy for anyone to do. The handbook is free to all and requires little or no resources—just nature!
You can do the activities with others, on your own, and they can be simply slotted in around any other plans you have whilst outdoors. They are suitable for children of all ages too.
We think you will find them lots of fun!
Some of my personal favourites are ‘Sky Bathing Babies’, ‘Mother Nature’s Match Box’, and ‘Rub a Dub Tree’. You should also try out ‘Goodnight Moon, Hello Stars!’ when it gets dark outside.
We have also published a sister blog post on Finding Nature’s website that’s called Children and Nature – Making Lasting Connections. In that piece you can read more about the creative process, the Pathways to Nature Connectedness, and the five ways people of all ages connect to nature. We provide some top tips for connecting to nature with children too!
Tune into Nature at Night
The Tune into Nature at Night activity is based on other recent work that I have been doing about the connection people feel to the night. You can read about the work in our free-to-access journal publication – here.
In the article, we explain how people form a connection to the natural world at night and the way they can enhance this connection. In short, it is not just about time spent in nature at night, it is about establishing a strong relationship with it that’s important. When people actively notice nature—using their senses, finding things that are beautiful or meaningful, or that result from an amazing or emotional experience—and ‘tune in’ to the night, then they begin to feel the benefit from it.
The types of activities that may help foster a deeper connection to the night are things like:
- stargazing
- bat watching,
- searching for nocturnal wildlife (e.g. moths), or
- going on a mindful night walk.
…and that’s what we will be doing in this activity at the festival; Mindful walking, searching for beautiful invertebrates, and taking a moment to appreciate the dark and quiet skies.
I hope you will stay tuned for the post-festival update!
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