Published on September 16, 2024
Public spaces offer more than just places to gather — they open up opportunities for discovery, curiosity and a deeper connection to the world around us.
In our ongoing series, we invite guest writers to explore the vital role these spaces play in our lives. The series continues with Melissa Peters, a writer, director and performer based in Toronto. She is the co-creator of Secrets of the Forest, a TV series for ages 6-10, in which a young host meets with scientists and conservationists to uncover forest mysteries. The series currently airs on TVOKids, and can also be watched on tvokids.com and TVOKids’ YouTube channel.
Melissa shares how they brought wonder to life on screen and offers a few ways to help children explore and appreciate the outdoors.
When I co-created the children’s television show Secrets of the Forest, my goal was to foster a connection with nature for our school-aged audience. It is widely understood that this connection is lacking in our younger generations. The phrase “nature deficit disorder” has even been coined to describe behavioural changes in youth as a result of spending less time outside.
For children and adults alike, spending time in nature consciously and unconsciously teaches us that our individual lives are a part of something bigger, deepening our understanding of our responsibility as humans to the planet and each other. Growing up with a dad who was a head Cub Scout leader, being outdoors was a constant in my childhood. It remains so in my adult life; in my 13 years in Toronto, I have only lived near the ravines or High Park. These spaces are my personal solace from the chaotic city and my unpredictable life in show business.
When our team was given the ‘green light’ on production from TVO, I felt a great responsibility to do these spaces justice. But the big question was how? How do we make this show something greater than a hiking show and tell? How do we incite action in our young viewers to get them to turn off their screens (after the show, of course) and ask to go outside?
It quickly emerged that the key ingredient we needed was wonder.
Melissa with Secrets of the Forest host Taviss Edwards chasing waterfalls on a shoot in British Columbia.
Sometimes defined as the quality of exciting amazed admiration, wonder is mostly intangible. It’s a feeling as potent as joy or sadness, but much harder to induce. With 26 episodes, we needed 26 subjects and stories that would all touch on this “wonder factor.” So, I turned back to what children love, whether they’re playing video games or exploring the world: mystery, adventure, discovery. I sought out those elements as I interviewed scientists, conservationists, artists and educators from across the country.
Whether we were discussing bird migration, fungal relationships or plant medicine, the experts all had infectious passion and enthusiasm for their respective subjects. A lichenologist from Ottawa sent me out on a mission to find a teeny stubble lichen on a specific High Park tree, and I traipsed through the Don Valley ravine systems on the heels of a Toronto-based ecologist in search for massive oak Mother Trees. After each interview or research outing, I found myself giddy, full of frenetic energy, and would breathlessly share my newfound nuggets of knowledge with my partner. Really, I found myself in a childlike state.
There’s a reason we say “I wonder…” One idea was born from a brainstorming walk I took in High Park. I thought “What’s up with moss? It can’t just be green fuzz.” That line became the catalyst of a whole episode (and moss is not just green fuzz, in fact, it’s hundreds of different leaves that can go from a dormant state to uncurl and bloom and burst with chlorophyll and life with a mere spray of water. But don’t get me started!)
Children are sponges for information on subjects they love (have you ever met a kid who loves dinosaurs? They are like encyclopedias!) Just like children, these scientists’ eyes would light up as they shared every “little known fact” with me, and mine would light up as I shared the latest story idea with my team. I was finding the wonder lived in the details; in the tiny pieces that collectively led towards the big picture “awe.”
This taught me that we actually have a responsibility to help spark the beginnings of wonder; to provide children with just enough information to get them hooked. We can’t just send them out in the forest and expect them to conjure up “exciting amazed admiration” themselves.
The guest expert captures Melissa on a location scout in Toronto’s ravines.
In Secrets of the Forest, our experts provide that coveted spark. If you’re looking to deepen the nature connection of your own child or beloved little ones, the spark comes from you.
Engaging with your own curiosity will provide the kids in your life an example to emulate. First, take a moment and reflect. Why do you value nature? What did you love about it as a child? If this feels too broad, take a step outside and peek at your nearest tree. Do you know what tree species it is? Do you know what that splotch of dust-looking thing on it is? (Hint: it’s probably lichen, and we have an episode on that!)
Then: Look it up! Find that information out for yourself. The answer is probably cool, or at least unexpected, and might take you down a rabbit hole of interest, which you can then…
Share. Go to your favourite outdoor space and tell the little ones about what you’ve learned. Show them. Look closer! Use your phone’s magnifier and look even closer. In Secrets of the Forest, whenever it became too “show and tell-y” we’d always make a game out of it. How fast could our host spot the “elephant leg” shape of a beech tree? How many different lichens could she find on a single tree? How many different shaped leaves make up this one patch of moss?
Secrets of the Forest even has multiple episodes filmed in Toronto’s own incredible public green spaces. Go on a hunt for the biggest tree in the ravines surrounding the Brick Works, as they do in our Forest Mother episode; see how many different lichens you can spot like in The Transformer; build your own mini beaver-dam in a creek like in The Architect; use a mustard-water solution to draw some worms to the soil’s surface as we do in Underground Invader. You don’t have to go to the Amazon to seek out nature’s wonders — they truly are in our own backyards.
As a child, my scout leader father consistently modelled engaging with nature with curiosity, respect and wonder. When I created Secrets of the Forest, I knew those qualities were needed in the show. What I didn’t know was the extent to which I would have to connect with those qualities in myself. In order to convey the experience of wonder on screen, I had to reconnect to my own inner child-driven curiosity. Surprisingly, that was the easiest part of the job.
You may not be a cub leader or hike guide, camper or naturalist. But if you are a human who treasures our natural spaces, ask yourself why. Ask yourself what you wish you knew. Find out just a little about it and share it. Passing on these little intrigues nurtures children who grow into adults who not only appreciate nature, but become scientists, artists, conservationists, researchers — or people who happily make TV about it.
