Family-Outdoors

Cover via Amazon Educators, youth leaders and parents will learn about "Nature Deficit Disorder" and outdoor experiences that reconnect children with nature. By Dan Zarlenga, MDC ST. LOUIS --  The disconnection of today’s children from the natural world is a growing concern among parents, educators and mental and physical health professionals throughout the country. “Nature Deficit Disorder" is a condition identified by author Richard Louv in his book  Last Child in the Woods  and has been linked to troubling current childhood trends such as the rise in obesity, attention disorders and depression. To help address these concerns, the Gateway Children’s Nature Connection, a coalition of St. Louis-area organizations that share a mission of helping parents reconnect children with nature, is sponsoring the “No Child Left Inside Conference” on Saturday, March 31, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the J.C. Penny Conference Center on the campus of the University of Miss...

Image via Wikipedia First Baptist Childcare Center to host workshop Alliance, OH – Both formal and non-formal educators who work with children ages three to seven are invited to attend a Growing Up WILD workshop in Stark County on Thursday, February 9th. The workshop, which will be facilitated by personnel from the Ohio Division of Wildlife, will be held at the First Baptist Childcare Center from 6:00pm-9:00pm. Growing Up WILD is an early childhood education program that builds on children’s sense of wonder about nature and invites them to explore wildlife and the world around them.  Workshop participants will take home an easy-to-use book containing nearly 30 field-tested activities focusing on wildlife and nature . These activities blend social, emotional, physical, language, and cognitive skills to help foster learning and are correlated to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Standards and the Head Start Domains. There is no fee for the w...

Image by Tony Trần via Flickr It is becoming increasingly difficult to get kids connected with the outdoors.  At our main site, Family-Outdoors , this is one of our primary objectives.  The Missouri Department of Conservation at their Powder Valley site, is offering an event to help with this cause. The press release follows: Summer is the perfect time to get your child outside! Join us at Powder Valley on June 24 for a movie screening of  Mother Nature’s Child: Growing Outdoors in the Media Age  and a  Get Your Child Outside  special event on June 25. More information can be found at: http://mdc.mo.gov/sites/ default/files/resources/2011/ 04/child_outside_2.pdf The movie was produced and directed by Camilla Rockwell and was one of the movies selected for the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. It examines the symptoms of “nature deficit” which include obesity, depression, and attention disorders. It explores the essential ways nature ...

St. Regis River-Adirondack Mountains Copyright 2010 P. Allen Mann III- Family-Outdoors Part of this effort is a call to action.  I am calling on parents to get their families outside into nature in WHATEVER  capacity they feel so led.  This may differentiate my efforts with those of others, in that I have no strong inclinations as to how people should enjoy nature - that so long as they are truly engaged with their surroundings, and that they are engaged in activities not harmful to the environment (as for example can be some motor sports if done recklessly). There is little doubt that outdoor activities increase the well-being of children . The nature of childhood has changed: there’s not much nature in it. American childhood has moved indoors during the last two decades, taking a mental and physical toll on today’s kids. The negative impact of decreased time outdoors includes a doubling of the childhood obesity rate -- accompanied by an incremental hundred ...