Come Out and Play!

With three young boys, being outdoors is a way of life for our family. We live in a somewhat urban environment, but are fortunate to have a yard to dig in, beautiful parks within walking distance and even a beach a few miles away. Last year I was moved by the book Last Child In The Woods. It describes how many of today's children have lost their connection to nature and how exposure to the outdoors is essential to their development and well being. The book really resonated with me as I had been thinking a great deal about how technology, as wonderful and necessary as it can be, can also be taking us away from the gorgeous, natural world we live in.

The Children and Nature Network has designated April to be Children and Nature Awareness Month and the really awesome and awe-inspiring Lisa of 5 Orange Potatoes has challenged us bloggers to go outdoors with our children and show the world how we play :)! Every day, rain or shine, we will take photos of our kids outdoors and post it onto our blogs (as many of you have surmised, I'm an inconsistent blogger at best, but will show my boys outdoors with my posts). I hope you all will join me, blogger or not, and spend a few minutes each day outside... loving, learning and playing in nature.

We had actually spent the morning yesterday at one of our regional parks attending a gardening workshop for kids. There was a brief talk in the beginning where a naturalist described the basics of plants and what they needed to grow...

Then the kids all went outside to see some of the native plants in our area...

and plant some seeds of their own...

Here they are as hummingbirds helping pollinate the plants

...and at the end of the workshop they made their own gardening pots

with cannellini beans inside to grow

Thank you all for joining us on our outdoor adventure!
We can't wait to see yours!

Here are the others who are playing in the Great Outdoor Challenge, please go check them out!