New Jersey Parks Commission Reaches Out to Infants

(New Jersey) Daily Record – September 01, 2008
By Meghan Van Dyk

Every Tuesday morning, Diana Melrose packs up her baby backpack with water, pretzels and her 17-month-old son Ryan, and heads to a Morris County park to join other parents on a guided Baby and Me hike hosted by the Morris County Park Commission.

Melrose just likes to be outside, and is hoping that as her son gets older, he'll choose the fresh air of the outdoors over the glow of the television.

"This is something I can do with him that is good for both of us," said the 29-year-old Hackettstown mom. "He's not just a detached viewer, he's engaged in nature, touching rocks, leaves, feathers, flowers, whatever we come across."

Last week, about six moms and dads, their children, and a set of feisty grandparents, trekked a three-mile trail in Schooley's Mountain County Park in Washington Township.

Along the way, they stopped at a vista overlooking downtown Long Valley and paused to reflect when the guide, Mindy Schmitt, pointed out some purple Bergamot flowers and a great horned owl's feather.

The Baby and Me hikes take place at a different park in Morris County every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. Registration is required, but at just $1, the hikes are an example of the many affordable educational programs hosted by the Morris County Parks Commission.

Butterfly Festival

Parents and children can tour Pyramid Mountain's butterfly garden and help the naturalists tag live butterflies at the Monarch Butterfly Festival on Sept. 13. The festival will feature live music, crafts projects such as making butterfly origami, games centered around the butterfly life cycle and, of course, monarch butterflies.

Or they can learn how to use a map and compass, start a fire without matches and help build a wigwam to learn how to survive in the wild at the Wilderness Skills Day at the Great Swamp Education Center on Sept. 28.

Getting Kids Outdoors

"We want to get everyone outdoors enjoying nature, but especially children," said Jenny Gaus, superintendent of environmental education for the park commission. "There is a big push, being called the 'No Child Left Inside Movement,' that taps into the fact that nature is a powerful teaching tool, and it's also good for your mental well being, and if they are engaged in the natural world now, they are more likely to take responsibility for it and help reverse the damage we've done to it as a species when they are adults."

Among the park commission's most popular programs are the Nature's Little Explorers series for children 2 to 3 years old and the Woodland Adventures series for children 4 to 6 years old.

The activities delve into different nature themes and use age-appropriate games and skills to get kids thinking, Gaus said.

But parents, too, will likely walk away having learned something new.

"The programs are a good all-around experience for the whole family," Gaus said. "There is always something new to learn when it comes to nature, even for us experts."

The Baby and Me hike was a first for Morristown mom Anika Garcia and her 13-month-old son Jayden.

"I'm glad to be getting out and exploring parks I wouldn't normally be," Garcia said, her son cooing inside her backpack as he bobbed along the trail. "I did a lot of backpacking in high school, but it's like a totally new experience to be doing this with Jayden."

Chester resident Michol Chiaese, who has attended the hikes since her two-and-a-half-year-old son Luca was nine months old, will be packing folders and markers into Luca's first backpack and sending him off the school tomorrow instead of hiking with him.

"This hike will be my last," the Chester mom said last week. "It's been my exercise, my meditation, no matter if it's sunny, pouring or snowing. I've loved every step of the way."

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