When you were a kid of age 8 or older, did you pause to observe the environment around you? Can you remember?

Question

We expect children to know and be so much these days at a much younger age.

Great answers and I can tell it will be difficult to choose a best answer for this one.

Answer 1

Do you mean the physical or emotional?

I remember wanting to protect the planet from being destroyed by people, I remember enjoying the scenery of a bushwalk, I loved the satisfaction of climbing a mountain to see the view. I remember being six years old and we were on a train at 5 am, and when the sun rose, i thought it was the most spectacular thing ever.

I think kids are very capable of observing the beuaty in the earth. A few years ago, a young African boy named Safari Kimanzi was brought to Australia to undergo surgery to his burnt body (injuries the 6 year old sustained at age 3). After one night of sight-seeing in Sydney, he told his foster-parents this statement.

"Australia is so beautiful, If only I could take all this beauty back to Africa!" My own students suprise me with their profound insights.

Answer 2

Yeah I do remember actually.
And I did care, probably a bit too much about the environment. A few years later I didn't care at all. But such is the nature of children.

We do expect a lot, but first, unless we're damn near abusive, they can usually live up to it. (AND ALMOST ALWAYS AT LEAST TRY) Some parents don't expect ANYTHING, but just pray that the child will be out of the house by 18.

Even so, their minds are sponges, and if parents enforce more positive reinforcement (Especially something that's more immediate than graduating, or getting money at the end of the year ect..) they rise to the occasion more often than not.

Answer 3

I was stuck in a 1975 Green Buick Elecktra for 4 days with my family on our way from Michigan to California. The rockies were impressive for the first hour.

I would have enjoyed it more had my sister not been so annoying. Iowa was annoying too. Corn, Corn, Corn.

On a more philisophical note I loved going to Lake Huron at that age and the St. Clair River. I loved swimming under the water and seeing another world. I loved watching the river flow and the waves on the Lake.

Answer 4

Yes. And the world used to seem much more daunting and yet at the same time filled with wonderment. Tiny ants marching to and fro on the ground, the smell of summer rain, the lulling waves of the ocean in their foaming beauty, on and on. All of this and so much more.

And the witnessing of one's first rainbow or sunset. Difficult to forget. God's canvass of indescribable colors. Now even occassionally I pause and allow myself for a few precious moments to glory in this creation, albeit not as often as I should.

A slower pace and more appreciation for simple pleasures. It's unfortunate that in this fast-paced world we have lost sight and as a result children are dragged along in a never-ending barage of activity.

Sunset and rainbows. Flowers and trees and even the breeze. Once in awhile we all need to slow down and appreciate these. For tomorrrow there will be time to fold the laundry, mop the floor, bake the cake, attend the soccer game, the ballet recital, etc... but the sunset and rainbows once their gone we can never recapture them.

Answer 5

Sure do! I would lay down on the grass and watch the clouds go by, imagining them as all kinds of different animals as the clouds changed shape. I remember doing this when I was a bit older too (maybe 16-18, but I sat on a car's hood next to my girlfriend) and still enjoyed it -- it was a peaceful happy feeling.

Answer 6

My Dad was working in Washington State for Boeing when I was 8, we lived within sight of Puget Sound. This is some of the most beautiful country in the world and it made a big impact on me.

Answer 7

Yeah I did. I was obsessed with the environment during the years of 7-10, actually.

Answer 8

You are all worked up because some 8 year old child attempted to touch your back at the prompting of his elder brother. Not your bottom, not your breast, not your "area", but your back. You have the audacity to call this child a pervert when he did nothing perverted? Shoot, it sounds like his older brother was just being a goof ball trying to get his brother to do something silly (a bit rude, granted but not perverted). I think you are the pervert for thinking this child had dirty thoughts like that.

Answer 9

I can remember when I was a kid a flock of birds would fly over and they would go on from miles. It amazed me how many there were. Now we only see a small few at a time.

Answer 10

honestly, i think with the environment that society has been surrounding kids with these days has limited the time they spend outside enjoying and observing their surroundings. i say we take it for granted and depend too much on technology for entertainment when it could truly be found outside with a simple walk or sport