I love the Green Hour program and everything it stands for. Today, I read an entry on their blog that I found especially in line with my own thoughts as the writer is also an urban mom trying to instill a love of nature in her children. Just wanted to pass it on…
I just wanted to post this incredible helpful article from Low Impact Living on the most useful environmentally friendly websites for parents - because sometimes you just don’t know where to start looking! Low Impact Living has a wealth of information on all things green - from ways to make basic changes in your lifestyle to how to transform any room in your home. I even just read an article on eco-healthy child care centers throughout the country.
One small thing we’ve just done was order a energy saving kit through our electricity provider - it includes a new water-saver showerhead, lightbulbs and several other items that help to save electricity throughout the home. As I see it, we can’t expect our children to love nature if we’re not doing our part to preserve it for them - and teaching them to do it for themselves.
While the novice Jane Austen reader may not look beyond her brilliant creation of the dreamy Mr. Darcy, there is much wisdom to be discovered in her writings. And no matter how many times I read her books, I discover something new based on what I’m thinking about at the time. How I love being lost in her world - even if it is currently the world of Mansfield Park, which you may or may not like, though I say any Austen is better than no Austen - but, I had to come back to reality to blog about a few words Edmund remarked to Fanny :
“It is a lovely night, and they are much to be pitied who have not been taught to feel in some degree as you do - who have not at least been given a taste for nature in early life. They lose a great deal.”
Miss Austen knew it - so why have we lost so much in the ensuing generations. It brought to mind a bill currently being presented in Congress that was brought to my attention by my good friend Wes. The “No Child Left Behind” bill encourages law makers to give more funding to outdoor education. While I do think this is a great thing, I can’t believe that we need it! Being in nature shouldn’t require the intervention of government or even formal educators - it should just be ingrained in all of us from our earliest days!!! But it is not… and that is one of the tragedies of our modern world.
As I raise my own children in this computerized environment, I realize that I took my childhood for granted - the big backyard full of fruit trees, a tree house and forts built by my big brothers, roaming in the field behind our house and beyond that in the park and river bottom, exploring the hills and streams - and all this in a suburb of LA, it wasn’t like I was living in ruralville. So, why, just a generation later, are we having to fight for what came so naturally… And I do feel like I have to fight, fight to give my boys a childhood filled with natural wonder.
One of the little things I’ve started doing since Kaleo moved up to Philly is to take the kids for evening walks - I thought Kai would balk at the idea, but he actually asks if we can go. There is a feeling, a smell, a magic, that only belongs to summer nights - and so we roam around the neighborhood or through the park outside the condo, enjoying what is left of these intoxicating evenings. Kai and I have races along the sidewalks while I push the stroller and he runs as fast as he can. Sometimes we go to a nearby playground and play on the seasaw in the dark. I love being able to play on summer nights like I did as a kid. And I love watching my sons fall in love with the magic of twilight.
hello time of transition. Somewhere in between Philly and D.C. is where you’ll find us right now. If not physically, then mentally. So, thought I’d take this opportunity to remember some of our fun times in the Virginia boondocks - most of which were thought of to compensate for not having a car to go exploring with. Creativity is the result of necessity most of the time anyway…
Okay, so bike riding isn’t exactly creative, but Kai had to take it up a notch by pulling Taz along with him -
Not to be out done, Taz decided that he was over the whole being pulled thing - he could manage taking himself for a ride, thank you very much.
And yet another wise thing to come from Curious George - extreme hopscotch! Kai designed it himself and thought it was oh, so cool. The wonders of sidewalk chalk are endless.
And one of my favorites - climbing - complete with the belt from his superman robe. Today the porch rail, tomorrow, Mt. Tasman in New Zealand (hey, they have to get back to their roots at some point).
Of course, you can never go wrong with the old classics like bug catching…
and gardening. Though I am a bit relieved that Kai hasn’t been down at the house to notice that, apparently,
deer do eat pumpkin plants after all… well, at least, we can leave Virginia without wondering how large our pumpkins grew - now they will only ever grow in our imaginations…
There were even a few things about VA that I hadn’t experienced before - being a bit of a city girl and all - like backyard bonfires…
and finding snake skins around the yard - this is the number one reason the kids weren’t allowed to rome around in the backyard by themselves. Dangerous or not, they give me the weebiejeebies and I wouldn’t want Kai to run into one on his own…
And last, but not least, even with all the adventurous stuff, my favorite past time is still just enjoying some yummy summer food…
So, Virginia house, thanks for the good times. But I have to say, I’m so glad not to be going back and forth anymore. Now, we can just focus on exploring Maryland/D.C. So, stay-tuned for the rest of our pre-Philly adventures.
It’s great when the research supports your own personal convictions. So, I was excited to find this article about the importance of kids spending time outside. I was shocked to read that on average kids only spend a 1/2 hour each WEEK in unstructured outdoor play - that is just so wrong and I refuse to ever have my kids fall into that average! A few of the benefits for having kids spend time in nature (as if we needed any convincing) include:
The National Wildlife Federation has a fantastic program called the Green Hour which gives heaps of ideas on things kids can do outside. Another resource is the Sharing Nature Foundation - it has a Sharing Nature Newsletter, which includes several activities to engage and inspire our youth in the wonders of nature. It’s a PDF document, so is available of their homepage.
And for those of you in the Los Angeles area, there’s an amazing organization named the Children’s Nature Institute which advocates kids learning about and experiencing the outdoors. I thought their Urban Nature Week program was especially exciting - it encourages activities for finding nature in the city. While it’s organized in LA - it still has great ideas for finding nature in any city - and I’m all about that.