Hi , The warm weather has arrived, and so have the pollinators! Wow - what an opportunity to connect your child with nature! Next sunny afternoon, put on your hat and sunscreen and take your children out to a vacant lot, a nearby park, or your own backyard – anywhere there might be flowers of any kind. Observing pollinators gives you a wonderful opportunity to model a couple of important things for your child. You can model respect as you keep your distance from busy bees and sipping butterflies; and you can model nature observation as you bend down to get a close look at the appearance and behavior of pollinators. Take some field notes, and perhaps even do a rough sketch, that will help you identify the pollinator when you’re back home, using the following pollinator identification guides: You could even upload a photograph to the wonderful Seek by iNaturalist app to get that positive identification! This is important stuff: without pollination, most many flower species would simply go extinct! And many human crops would never produce seeds. When it comes to pollinators, you also have the opportunity to model environmental stewardship, through planting flowers in your yard – or building a home for bees as you follow our guide, below. Have fun in the sun! Please share this with any teachers and parents that you think may find this useful. To be the first to receive this content, click here to subscribe to our parent newsletter. |
