A longtime local educator has authored a children's book just in time for Earth Day. WBFO's Focus on Education Reporter Eileen Buckley says the book can be used to teach a child about backyard nature.
“I was drawn to capture novel moments of play when my grandchildren came over to my home,” said Dave Bauer of Williamsville. He’s with Fostering Creative Play for Children in Western New York.
For more than 30 years, Bauer was an environmental science teacher at Alden High School. Now he has authored his first children's book focusing on the outdoors and the science of nature. His book, What's Under That Rock Papa?, appeals to children four to nine years of age.
The book is about his two young grandchildren, six and eight years old, who live in Buffalo.
“Over a period of about a year and a half they were introducing me to my backyard in a way that, even though I lived in it many years, could never see it through the lens that they were seeing were seeing it through. So one of the most annoying things is they did with the lift up all the big heavy pieces of slate and find all the microbiota underneath the slate,” explained Bauer.
Bauer has been sharing his book with area school kids and conducts public speaking engagements. He appeared Wednesday at Elmwood Franklin School in Buffalo. Next Thursday he travels to Wales Elementary school to talk with young school children.
As a longtime educator, Bauer noted that even with state mandates and Common Core, when teachers and parents work to do all they can for a child, they become an "agent of change."
“One of the things that I know many parents are asking for in the public schools of Buffalo is more recess time and outdoor playtime, and regrettably that is coming extremely sluggishly and slowly. I do believe the more time we get children in contact with the natural world, the more remarkably their cogitative, emotional, social and physiological development is,” stated Bauer.