Wednesday, April 7, 2010

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!

9 comments:

Lisa said...

What a great workshop! I think I'm mostly impressed with the native plants. Love the hummingbirds too though.

Thanks for participating. Don't know why the link love isn't posting to some.....frustrating. I'll try to solve it.

lisa

FrontierDreams said...

Oh how much fun! I love the hummingbird shot <3

I'm staying away from facebook right now (I think you know why) but I wanted to say thank YOU for the phone call. It was soooo great chatting!!!
Less than 3 million-trillion

Anonymous said...

what a great idea!

Ariella said...

sounds like a great workshop! Beautiful photos as always!

Joy said...

What a fun workshop for them! I love the hummingbirds and your little boy concentrating so hard. Thanks for all the sweet words on my blog last night!

Mamabear said...

I love that book too and I felt so in touch with his message. We love getting outside here too.

It is amazing how much we and our children can learn from the natural world.

I know my daughter is having a good time when she is muddy, dirty, wet, or covered in grass :)

Love your blog and find your words inspirational.

Nicola said...

Marina? This is the kind of thing we should have had our kids do together!
Beautiful and fun. Man those boys are heart breakers.
Nicola

Mountain Dad said...

Richard Louv's book was also an inspiration when I read it last year. Fortunately for our family, we have been able to live with the great outdoors at our doorstep so it's almost a given that our kids spend time outside everyday, rain, snow, or shine. The challenge sounds like a nice initiative, and what better way to start prioritizing more time outside.

Lisa said...

Looks like a great day, Marina!! What a great workshop. We are so lucky to live in an area that is urban yet surrounded by nature. I am looking forward to joining Lisa's challenge!
hugs
lisa