Children & Nature Awareness Month + A Challenge

A couple of months ago I had shared with you about one of my favorite authors, Richard Louv, who wrote the fantastic book 'Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder'. It's a look at how we've gone from you and I spending endless hours outdoors creating our own fun, playing in the woods, building forts or exploring nature to the current generation of children that are completely disconnected from the outdoors and spending more time inside with electronic gadgets and how it's so very important to make sure we are connecting our children with nature!

Well Richard has declared that April is 'Children and Nature Awareness Month' and today I happened to come across a new blog called 5 Orange Potatoes where she has challenged her readers to join her and participate in her Great Outdoors Challenge!

The challenge:
“in honor of Children and Nature Awareness Month, go outside everyday, rain or shine; then take a picture each day, for the rest of April, of your children outdoors and post it. Just a single picture will do; words aren’t even necessary. Lets spread the word and go outdoors!“

I am so up for this challenge as I am a firm believer that nature needs to be part of our day to day interactions and it just happens that I snapped a shot of my daughter above outdoors today as she munched on a rather large chocolate bunny that my sister gave her for Easter. All that sugar definitely had her singing in the rain *grin* and even the rain couldn't stop her from heading outside and enjoying nature :)

If you haven't heard of Richard Louv or his book 'Last Child in the Woods' then make sure you take a moment to visit an entry I shared in February that links to a live webcast of him speaking about his book, some of the statistics between nature and children, now and in the past, stories from the book plus more, and has an open Q&A at the end.

If you want to join in make sure you check out The Great Outdoors Challenge and you can also visit other participants and see what sort of nature fun they have been having by clicking on the names below :)

~ Rosina

Fellow Nature Players: lisa, sanders, angelina, phyllis, sarah, christie, jennifer, debbie, dong dong, denise, luisa, joy, stephanie, cori, alex, dawn, kristen, catherine, tricia, becky, christy, ruth, kari, courtney, branflakes, jessica, renee, haiku, brynn, amy, clemencia, sherry, leslie, lise, renee, anet, jenn, marina, amy, ella, marcia, karen, beth, julie, kyndale, kelly, lizzie, eileen, ag, mari-ann, cindy, robin, nicole, debbie, julia, renee, anita, lisa, jenn, montessori, marita, jeannie, hallie, mandy, kangaroo, andrea, joey, carmen, teena, stephinie

Webcast: Richard Louv ~ Last Child in the Woods

I can't believe the amazing weather we are having!! Finally, after flooding three times in 3 months, enduring endless weeks of torrential rain and not a glimpse of sunshine in what seems life forever we are basking in some pretty darn nice days :)

To top off the great day we were having I found out that there was a live webcast of Richard Louv who wrote the fantastic book 'Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder'. It's a look at how we've gone from you and I spending endless hours outdoors creating our own fun, playing in the woods, building forts or exploring nature to the current generation of children that are completely disconnected from the outdoors and spending more time inside with electronic gadgets! He shares how engaging with nature can be extremely beneficial for children with ADD, Autism and more, and how we need to be reconnecting our kids with the outdoors!

I'm not saying that everyone has this problem as I know there are many of us that still make sure that we're getting as much outdoor playtime as possible, but I still think that this book is a must read :)

You can still watch today's webcast by visiting the Blank Family Foundation's website and enjoy the presentation :) The first 5 or so minutes are of the audience talking and getting settled so don't turn it off! You can use that time to get a nice cup of tea *grin*. Richard shares some of the statistics between nature and children, now and in the past, stories from the book plus more, and has an open Q&A at the end. I think I'm going to watch it again as there were a few 'mama I need you' interruptions during the live feed LOL.

Do you have any other book recommendations that you could share? I'd love to add some more to my reading list :)

~ Rosina