Want to Help a Kid in Your Life Connect with Nature? Start Here

by Kysh Lindell

Header image: 11-year-old Quill and father Drew do an activity from Learning with the Land. Photo by Carrie Carroll.

How do we help the next generation get interested in the environment?

Ah, the age-old question. But if you were to ask us, the answer might be simpler than you think: take a kid outside with you! If the Leopold family’s stories of planting pines, observing wildlife, and hunting for the season’s first blooms at the Shack have anything to teach us, it’s that all young people need is a chance to experience the natural world up close, hands-on, and alongside someone they love.  

When you think back to the early experiences that shaped you into a lifelong nature lover, chances are the adults in your life feature as your guides. Maybe it was Grandma naming the colorful birds as they visited her feeders, a parent helping you reel in a first catch, or even a caregiver entertaining your curiosity about bugs on a walk. Connecting with a loved one went hand in hand with connecting with the natural world.

Now, we want to make that learning process as easy, engaging, and downright fun as possible for you and your family. So meet Learning with the Land: an activity-packed eBook that helps you share your values grounded in nature while helping the young people in your life see the world anew.

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Explore. Investigate. Reflect. Repeat.

Learning with the Land is a collection of 20 thoughtful, hands-on nature activities that bring the essays of A Sand County Almanac to life. Think:

- Reading tree rings to uncover environmental mysteries (“Good Oak”)

- Completing a native plant scavenger hunt (“Prairie Birthday”)

- Measuring water quality by collecting macroinvertebrates from a local stream (“The Alder Fork”)

- Building a sound map of your environment (“Too Early”)  

- Tracking migratory bird species as they pass through your area (“Back from the Argentine”)

Each activity encourages observation, participation and reflection—the same principles that Leopold used to teach his own children and students. Through guided inquiry, artistic expression, and scientific investigation, participants will learn to read the landscape and take action to protect it. Even better, the activities cross disciplines, helping kids build skills in science, history, art, writing, and ethics.

Complete with printable worksheets, material lists, and detailed instructions, the Learning with the Land eBook is a step-by-step guide and companion to A Sand County Almanac. Just download the eBook on your phone or computer, print out any materials you need, and take the activities anywhere in the world! Though designed for ages 10+, the activities can easily be adapted for all ages, environments and group sizes.

A Book for You and Yours

If you’re a longtime follower of the Aldo Leopold Foundation, you might remember an educational program called the Leopold Education Project.

This program took a “teach the teacher” approach, training volunteers and educators across the country to get students excited about the natural world and provide top tier environmental education in their local communities. In fact, the hands-on activities in the Learning with the Land eBook are tried and true by those workshop participants.

“Doing these user-friendly activities together can really flip a switch,” says long-time volunteer and supporter with the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Luann Sewell Waters. “It’s important for all of us to have a relationship with the land, to know from where our food really comes. Bringing kids in at an early age is ideal—and adults will get a lot out of the activities as well.”  

Waters is a conservation and history educator of 40+ years who lives in Oklahoma. Waters points out that the activities in “Learning with the Land” can be tailored to the place where one lives including in urban settings with limited access to large natural landscapes.

“For the Landscape Scene Investigators activity, we simply grabbed a white sheet and drew markings of wildlife activity on the ‘snow.’ The students then discussed the depicted animal tracks; for many of these college-aged young people, this was their first time really thinking about the tracks animals leave. The students even added human footprints to the animal tracks—clearly grasping the connectedness of the land community!”

But what if everyone could have access to this kind of learning, no matter where they lived or who the educators in their lives were? Learning with the Land provides just that opportunity: approachable, low-cost educational experiences you can download and complete from anywhere in the world. Yes, you!

In a fast-paced, increasingly disconnected world, Learning with the Land is a chance to slow down, devote our attention to the land around us, and re-build relationships not only with the natural world, but with one another. This eBook is your key to deep, thoughtful, and wonder-filled experiences with the plants, animals, waters, and soils around you—to helping the people in your life really see the land, and to inspiring the next generation to care for it.  

Get Started Today

Ready to kick off a fun-filled season of learning with your family, friends, or community group?

You can purchase a downloadable copy of the full Learning with the Land eBook for just $9.95 at www.aldoleopold.org/products/learning-with-the-land. Check out that same page for a sneak peek at one of the hands-on activities included in the eBook!  

You can also access more educational resources in our Learning Hub and Marshland Market, including the Emmy-award winning documentary Green Fire, a discussion guide for A Sand County Almanac, and the book that started it all!  

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