The Great Outdoors versus Turtle Salmonella

For me growing up and playing outside was all about seeing what was out there. We caught fireflies, minnows, toads (remember that warm wet feeling on your hand?), beetles, ants, frogs, and turtles. Today the emphasis is trying to get kids "back to nature." Get them playing outdoors, in nature, whenever possible. Give them free time to just play, make daisy chains and houses for fairies, use a dandelion to make wishes or check to see if you like butter (rub the yellow dandelion on someone's chin, if their chin turns yellow, they like butter), gather acorns and make houses for the acorn family, find bird nests with evidence that chicks have hatched (or have the mama bird swoop at you and scold you to keep away from her babies).

We are also told by health authorities that we shouldn't have our kids touch these animals (especially turtles) because they could be carriers of salmonella. Salmonella is a nasty gastrointestinal illness, and definitely worth avoiding. However, didn't anyone ever think of washing your hands? I think we should tell our children to go ahead and observe and even carefully catch turtles, frogs, toads, and garter snakes! It's exciting to do this and it makes nature more real. Kids can learn about nature and how to be kind to animals by creating their own relationship with them. They can learn about habitats and lifecycles. Protecting the environment becomes more important when we see who lives in the marsh, or even on the side of the road. What is all the trash we just picked up on the lakeshore doing to these animals? And it's all more real because of "Fenton and Frieda" (the frogs in the pictures), or Snakey the garter snake, or Percy the turtle--who all became "pets" for a few minutes before they were gently let go (and the child washed her hands).

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