By using nature, you can give children a healthy opportunity to understand death—by exploring life cycles and the changes that happen in living things, children will be better prepared when a family member or friend dies.

Use the following natural phenomenon and opportunities: a dried fallen leaf, a wilted flower, and the death of an insect, bird, or class pet to discuss death as a part of the life cycle.

Explain that death comes to all living things. It is inevitable and irreversible. It is the biological way of life.

Children love to care for and nurture living things. And they especially love to devote themselves to nurturing something that they have planted—to watch it grow.

Start them out with planting seeds indoors…something that sprouts quickly and grows fast, like a bean, sunflower or snapdragon. Then set the seedlings outside on a sheltered patio or under the light shade of a tree for a few days before you transplant them into the ground.

Your child will be fascinated with the changes they see as the plant grows, matures and dies…and you’ll be able to talk them through the life and death cycle.

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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