A person with a "green thumb," or any naturalist, is someone who has strength of naturalist intelligence. In other words, he or she is smart about growing, collecting, observing, identifying, and classifying nature. Howard Gardner, who developed the theory of multiple intelligences, a concept that identifies the many ways that kids and people are smart, says that naturalist intelligence is just one of eight (and likely more) intelligences, that they all work together, and that no one intelligence is better than another.
Find out more about the importance of playing with young children: Go to Play, right here on FamilyFun.com.
Read some great books on nature with your child:
• ABC NATURE RIDDLES by Susan Joyce
• BUMBLEBEE, BUMBLEBEE, DO YOU KNOW ME? by Anne Rockwell
• THE CARROT SEED by Ruth Krauss
• HENRY HIKES TO FITCHBURG by D.B. Johnson
• I TOOK A WALK by Henry Cole
• WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE A FISH? and others in the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science series
• LOOK BOOK by Tana Hoban
• MAMMALABILIA by Douglas Florian
• RAIN by Manya Stojic
• THE UNIVERSE and others in the First Discovery Books series
• WHEN NIGHT COMES by Ron Hirschi
More great ideas for exploring nature with kids:
•"Activities for the Growing Child" in THE FIELD GUIDE TO PARENTING by Shelley Butler and Deb Kratz, Chandler House Press, 2000.
• 365 SIMPLE SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS WITH EVERYDAY MATERIALS by E. Richard Chruchill, et al, Sterling Pub. Co., 1997.
• MUDPIES TO MAGNETS: A PRESCHOOL SCIENCE CURRICULUM by Robert A. Williams, et al, Gryphon House, 1990.
• WINTER: CREATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN and others in the Barron's Little Hands series and Tiny Hands series.
KidsGardening Web, from the National Gardening Association
Ranger Rick's Kid Zone, from the National Wildlife Federation
