Tips, Inspiration, and Resources for Starting Your Own Family Nature Club.

In the United States and internationally, a vibrant children-and-nature movement is helping parents, grandparents and caregivers reconnect children with nature. Here’s one way your family can get directly involved: create a family nature club. Such clubs are beginning to form around the country. They go by different names, and slightly different forms, but they all offer free, low-cost, fun family-oriented activities – ones that help kids (and adults) become happier, healthier and even smarter.

“What if more and more parents, grandparents and kids around the country band together to create outdoor adventure clubs, family nature networks, family outdoor clubs, or green gyms? What if this approach becomes the norm in every community?”— Richard Louv, author and Chairman, Children & Nature Network

What’s a family nature club? Here are a few examples of active clubs, followed by lists of tips and resources to set you on your way.

Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! (KIVA)
While reading "Last Child in the Woods," Chip Donahue and his family were inspired to spend more time outside as a family. In December 2007, they launched their own family nature club -- a free outdoor adventure network for families in their own neighborhood in the Roanoke Valley. One day their five-year-old son had an even better idea: "Dad, why don't we invite everyone?" Chip sent a notice to the local paper, and within a few months, over 170 families joined.

Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! (KIVA) now helps families get together for outdoors adventures or nature reclamation projects. The club publishes a monthly e-mail newsletter that lists recommendations for places for families to play, recommends books, and offers other resources. "One important thing is that we have required that parents or guardians stay with their children at all times," Donahue emphasizes. "We say, 'Stay and make a memory with your child.' The only thing we ask is that they consider joining us on volunteer days or finding another volunteer opportunity. There are so many beautiful free things to do outside."
http://www.kidsadventuring.org

Nature Strollers
Two outdoorsy moms, Laurel Dodge, a naturalist and environmental educator, and Kathleen Diamond, a Teacher of the Deaf, took their kids out hiking at every opportunity, but they were surprised to find that on trail after trail, their families hiked alone.

Speculating that many parents longed to take their kids out in nature, but were worried about going it alone, Dodge and Diamond volunteered to lead a free family nature study club for the Orange County Audubon Society of New York. Families flocked to the Nature Strollers group, relieved to be able to take their kids on the trail in a way that improved safety and reduced anxiety. Nature Strollers became a place for families with a common interest in nature to meet and become friends, and for parents and children to discover the natural world together.
http://www.naturestrollers.org/

Other approaches include “nature circles,” which California-based Hooked on Nature created to help families and individuals meet and explore their relationship to nature. In the United Kingdom, families and individuals are banding together to form "green gyms" for regular outdoor exercise.

“You don’t have to wait for a “green play” prescription from your doctor. You can start today with family and friends by opening the door to go outside to explore the wealth of natural adventures right in your own backyard, neighborhood and community.” --Cheryl Charles, President, Children & Nature Network

Tips for Starting a Family Nature Club
• You don’t have to do it alone. To start a family nature club, partner with another family.
• Enlist grandparents. They’re often a fount of knowledge about nature, and they have the time and resources that parents sometimes find in short supply.
• Start with nearby nature. You’ll be surprised how exotic your local parks can be – whether you’re exploring an urban center, a suburb, or a rural region.
• Schedule a variety of fun outdoor activities – hikes, nature photography expeditions, fishing, camping, nature restoration projects. Go harvesting, learn to track, explore local fossil beds, go birding, start a neighborhood garden.
• Create an e-mail list. Write a blog. Send out notices and recommendations for places for families to play and books to read.

Resources and Reading

[+] read "Do-It-Yourself Family Nature Clubs Could Spread Quickly" on Richard Louv's blog, "Notes from the Field"

[+] read selections from the C&NN summer reading list


We encourage linking to the following Web sites for useful information. However, C&NN is not responsible for the accuracy of the content of those Web sites.

[+] visit the Centers for Disease Control Web site for outdoor safety tips

[+] visit the KIVA Web site and blog

[+] visit the Nature Strollers Web site

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Funding for this initiative has been provided by REI to encourage active outdoor participation by young people and their families.
[+] find out more, visit the REI Web site

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NOTE: The role of the Children & Nature Network (C&NN) is to help build the children and nature movement, and to help parents and others learn about ways they can connect children to nature. Nature clubs for families is an approach we wish to encourage. However, such groups act independently and C&NN is not responsible for the actions of specific groups or individual members of such groups. At any time, when children are outside on their own, or with families and friends, everyone should take safety precautions and be mindful of risks.