Whole Kids Project

A Little Fresh Air: Kids and Nature

The Columbus Dispatch interviewed our family last week at our favorite Metro Park!:

To three young girls, the woodlands and lawns of Inniswood Metro Gardens in Westerville are one giant playground.

The Orsborn sisters create adventures along every bend in the trails: hunting for frogs in a dried-up pond, tossing sticks into the trickling stream and rolling down a grassy hillside.

This fall, the girls' parents are inviting other families to join them on hikes and other outings they will organize each month through an outdoor explorer club.

Nature clubs are emerging nationally as a way for today's overscheduled families to reconnect children with nature, said Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. The best-selling book has inspired parents and educators to take action through local grass-roots campaigns.

"This is a cultural change," Louv said. "It's people doing it themselves. We don't have to wait for big organizations to do this."

On September 26th the Leave No Child Inside Central Ohio Collaborative is hosting a summit at the Ohio Governor's mansion.  For more information visit KidsandNature.org.

Create a Family Nature Club

The Children and Nature Network (C&NN) emailed me this announcement:

This summer, the Children & Nature Network (C&NN) is launching a new initiative to help families engage in the growing children and nature movement. We encourage parents, grandparents, and caregivers to get directly involved. How? Create a family nature club. These Do-It-Yourself clubs offer free, low-cost, family-oriented activities – the ones that help kids (and adults) become happier, healthier and even smarter while having fun.

Tips, Inspiration, and Resources for Starting Your Own Family Nature Club: Visit the C&NN website, www.childrenandnature.org. This is just the beginning. Sign up now to receive the latest information and resources— and let us hear from you with your stories of successes and adventures.

Also, Richard Louv will appear on the Today Show on Wednesday, July 16 to discuss family nature clubs.

Friday Nite Video: A Conversation With Richard Louv

A conversation with Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods

Green Hour: A Very Cool Site

The more time that I've spent on the National Wildlife Federation's Green Hour site the more I'm blown away.

Most adults of a certain age have childhood memories of carefree days spent playing outdoors -- climbing, digging, collecting, building, and exploring the natural world around them, at their own pace, in their own way.

Those children of a generation ago are the parents of today, and you might expect such outdoor play to be part of their families' lifestyle. But today's overscheduled kids are increasingly "plugged in" to electronic devices and media and unplugged from the fundamental and formative experience of nature in their own neighborhood. Their senses -- including, most sadly, their sense of wonder -- are bombarded, overwhelmed, and ultimately diminished.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen. Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts

Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:

Play more creatively

Have lower stress levels

Have more active imaginations

Become fitter and leaner

Develop stronger immune systems

Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD

Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment

The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.

There are so many great outdoor activities to engage your kids and help them learn about the environment- there's even an activity built around roly-polys which just so happen to currently be our girls' favorite insect!

For the adults there is a downloadable mp3 of the week's activity, a blog, a free e-newsletter, a community corner for you to share ideas with other parents, and a park locator that can help you find green spaces near you.

The site is now listed as one of our favorites.

(One suggestion if anyone from Green Hour should read this: a link to Green Hour from the NWF site would be helpful!)

Connecting Today's Kids With Nature

The National Wildlife Federation has released a 36-page report, Connecting Today's Kids With Nature:

As I walked through the hallway of my daughter’s elementary school, memories of my own school days came flooding back. For years, my day began by securing books to my bike rack and riding through the neighborhood to school which was only a few blocks away. It is only now that I understand how deep an impact my time riding bikes, playing in the woods, and exploring the neighborhood stream had on my development as a person.

As I learn more about the health benefits associated with spending unstructured time in the outdoors, I am even more convinced of the importance of adding time outdoors—a Green Hour—to our family routine. Outdoor physical activity is good for our lungs, growing bones and our hearts – in a multitude of ways. For me, playing outside opened my heart up to a love of nature, a sense of stewardship and responsibility for other living creatures. I came to understand the interconnectedness of the natural world in a very personal way. As a parent, it is now my responsibility to foster this sense of wonder and stewardship in my children. Providing them experiences in the outdoors is an important way to pass along these values.And I believe that doing so with friends and other families is a great way to have fun and create meaningful relationships. (From the introduction by Jaime Berman Matyas the EVP and COO of the National Wildlife Federation)

This report supports the Nature Deficit Syndrome argument put forth by Richard Louv in his outstanding book Last Child in the Woods.

The NWF has also created a website called Green Hour which offers activity ideas intended to help kids spend one-hour a day outside exploring the world around them. Take a look.

Hat tip to: The People and Nature Journal

The Weather's Great- Go Outside

It looks as though we've turned a corner here in central Ohio- sunny and 74 today and moderate temps for a far as forecasters dare to guess.

Turn off the screens and go outside! Even if it is just for a stretch and a breath of fresh air.

Have you heard of the Children and Nature Network?

The vision and mission of the Children & Nature Network is to give every child in every community a wide range of opportunities to experience nature directly, reconnecting our children with nature's joys and lessons, its profound physical and mental bounty.

The Children & Nature Network (C&NN) was created to encourage and support the people and organizations working to reconnect children with nature. The network provides a critical link between researchers and individuals, educators and organizations dedicated to children's health and well-being. C&NN also promotes fundamental institutional change and provides resources for sharing information, strategic initiatives and success stories.

The C&NN news service and portal, cNatureNet.org, offers parents, youth, civic leaders, educators and health-care providers access to the latest news and research in this field as well as practical advice, including ways to apply new-found knowledge at home, at school, in work environments, and in the community. The network also engages a diverse community of institutes, organizations and industries by providing a forum for publishing and presenting research, reports and case studies on children's health and nature, and related program-development strategies and support.

The site has lots of news and offers support if you want to join the movement to "reconnect children and nature".

C&NN was founded by Richard Louv- the author of Last Child in the Woods - a great book about re-aquainting yourself and your kids with nature.

Read it! The book has great ideas- even for urbanites!