| Summary: | <p> This study explored the phenomenon of family shared time in nature from both the parent and child perspectives. The overarching research inquiry was: In what ways do children and their parents describe the experience of shared time in nature with regard to their senses of connection with their family and with nature? Four sub-questions informed the research: 1) How do primary caregivers perceive and describe family connections while in nature? 2) In what ways do primary caregivers perceive and describe their connection to nature when with their families in nature? 3) How do children describe and perceive their family connections while in nature? 4) How do children describe and perceive their connection with nature? To explore these questions, the author designed and facilitated a series of nature scavenger hunts for families in her community. Through a participatory research approach, a combination of participant observations, surveys, and the draw-write-tell method were used to gather a rich and descriptive body of quantitative and qualitative data. From both parent and child responses, two key findings emerged: simple nature outings are valuable to the family unit, and organized and purposeful nature outings help to foster attention and family connection.</p>
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