If you’ve spent any time around little kids, you know that they are like little sponges, which is why early learning is so important.
Enter Durango Nature Studies’ Preschool Wee Walks.
For an hour every Wednesday morning during the summer, kids and their caregivers have the opportunity to get outside and take a closer look at the natural world.
“They’re so close to the ground that they usually discover things that we can sometimes walk right past,” says Karen Carver, a longtime volunteer at Durango Nature Studies who was leading the Wee Walk earlier this month.
The themed walks begin with a story and then fingerplay or a song/movement activity at the gazebo at Rotary Park. Then it’s off exploring along the Animas River Trail, usually to Huck Finn Pond, Carver says.
These walks are an important way to keep nature fun in what can sometimes be a scary world, she says.
“If you or I open up the newspaper, you just see all this – it’s kind of almost tragic what’s happening to the environment. There’s mine spills, concerns about ozone and global climate change,” she says. “These issues can become almost overwhelming, so this is kind of really bringing the joy and the connection in to nature, rather than something that’s very concerning – it’s having fun and (being) joyful.”
Letting kids get outside and explore is something that’s important to the caregivers who bring their little ones to the Wee Walks.
Longtime Durango resident Elaine Ehlers, at the walk with her grandchildren, Dru, 4, and Rose, 2, says that not only is it important for little ones to begin learning about their world, it’s also important to learn about Durango.
“(With) our whole environment and what is taking place now, just educating them at a young age how important it is ... I want them just to appreciate a little plant, rocks, animals,” she says. “We live in Durango, and if you’re going to live in Durango, I hope that we all appreciate what we have here.”
If getting little kids outside and exposing them to their environment early wasn’t enough, Fort Lewis College senior Drew Petroske, who was at the walk observing ahead of becoming an intern at Durango Nature Studies in the fall, says that the benefits go even deeper.
“A lot of kids are so used to technology, actually getting out and using their hands and those motor skills you don’t really get to use – there have been so many studies done that show when kids are active outside, it improves their motor skills tremendously, and then that actually carries on into classrooms with their fine motor skills,” Petroske says.
“So just getting them outside, learning about nature, appreciating nature is a good thing to start learning at a young age. Getting them interested (in the environment) at a young age is a good thing.”
katie@durangoherald.com
If you go
What: Preschool Wee Walks, by Durango Nature Studies.
When: 10 a.m. every Wednesday, June through August.
Where: Rotary Park Pavilion
Cost: $5 per child, free for members and adults.
More information: For ages 3-5 years with an adult (older siblings welcome).
