Me, I’ve always made nature a priority. I don’t know any other way. It’s my oxygen, my religion. My wife, Janice, isn’t too far off. Our first date was a hike and our firstborn son is named after the trail we took that fateful day. Our boys, aged 3 and 5, are growing up in [...]
Things tend to get a little slow around the blogosphere in summer, and that’s generally a good thing. It means many people are taking breaks from their desks and computers, their work and school, and are hopefully enjoying some time outside in nature.
If you’re seeking more resources for summer activities, here are some ideas.
Download the [...]
Boredom has its benefits. So does solitude, that lost art in the age of wall-to-wall media. To occasionally be alone – not lonely, but alone – is an important part of parenting and of marriage. One time, my wife Kathy rented a room at the beach, and spent a weekend with no electronic interruptions, no [...]
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership, to which C&NN belongs, has issued two new resource guides: Getting Students Active through Safe Routes to School: Policies and Action Steps for Education Policymakers and Professionals and Implementing Safe Routes to School in Low-Income Schools and Communities: A Resource Guide for Volunteers and Professionals.
Getting Students Active provides [...]
Summer is upon us and, for many families, that means a traditional camp experience for their children. But even the camp experience has changed over the years to reflect what Richard Louv noted in 2005’s Last Child in the Woods as a “shift in our relationship to the natural world … even in settings that [...]
Updated June 1: As First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the Let’s Move Outside initiative, expanding her campaign to solve childhood obesity, a broad coalition representing the business and non-profit communities announced a national strategic partnership called the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK). OAK brings together the YMCA of the USA, REI, Sierra Club, National Wildlife [...]
An important new paper has just been released that further links children’s time in nature to their overall health. The paper, Using Nature and Outdoor Activity to Improve Children’s Health, was written by Leyla E. McCurdy, MPhil, Kate E. Winterbottom, MPH, Suril S. Mehta, MPH, and James R. Roberts, MD, MPH, and published in the [...]
There is a wealth of research to bolster the need for children to spend time in nature. Now visitors to the C&NN web site can access a round-up of selected research and studies that focus on nature in education and educational settings. These studies, along with others, were originally published by C&NN in four volumes, [...]
In addition to having 72 grassroots campaigns and hundreds of members in many parts of North America, the Children & Nature Movement includes clubs, groups, programs, and events around the globe, with ever-increasing numbers of people joining in.
NatureWize in Guiyang,Guizhou, China, just hosted a brunch and litter-pick up event for April Awareness Month. A program [...]
The 40th Earth Day day is upon us April 22, and many are celebrating the entire Earth Week, not to mention April’s Children & Nature Awareness Month. Earth Day’s legacy, from that first one in 1970, heralded a new era of conserving our land, air, water and other resources. At the government level, it sparked [...]
The Conference has ended. It was exciting to follow along and provide updates. A complete transcript of President Obama’s opening remarks can be seen here. C&NN Vice President and co-founder Martin LeBlanc, who is at the conference, wrote, “My main observation is that connecting children to the outdoors is fundamental to every Conservation priority the [...]
Last week, First Lady Michelle Obama hosted the White House Childhood Obesity Summit as part of her work with the newly formed Childhood Obesity Task Force and its accompanying Let’s Move campaign. The Summit was attended by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, and Martin LeBlanc, [...]
Make a Difference: 9/11 Day of Outdoor Service
Every day is filled with a chance to make a difference, today even more so with the ability to communicate in seconds through a virtual world. We can transfer money to a cause, virtually sign a petition, and spread the word to hundreds of people in our personal networks. Yet, at the end of the [...]