What’s a grandparent to do? Marti Erickson makes a practice of keeping two collapsible chairs in her car trunk. If she’s having a particularly stressful day, she drives to the closest patch of nature, sits on one of those chairs, and is soothed. She always carries two chairs in the trunk of her car. “My [...]
On the night before the roundup, the professor stood out under the river of stars. He watched satellites and listened to the coyotes. He said something quietly to the dog, and the dog padded back up to the house. From the plateau, he could see the dark hollows lined with Live Oaks that live so long and [...]
Thinking about Newtown. Chased by an unending stampede of 2,000-pound automobiles and 4,000-pound SUVs, we cocoon inside our homes. The assault continues. Unsettling, threatening images charge through the television cable and overwhelm us. Hyper-vigilance trumps mindfulness. Where do we find respite? The poet Wendell Berry offers direction: When despair for the world grows in me [...]
Not long ago I met some dedicated young women who were doing their student teaching at an impressive nature-based preschool. They made it clear that they’d love to pursue careers at similar schools. But they were discouraged about the prospects. Despite growing demand from parents, the number of nature-based preschools remains relatively low. “Is there [...]
Sitting is the new smoking. That’s a useful new buzz-phrase for what some health experts are calling the “pandemic of inactivity.” In January, the Harvard Business Review published “Sitting is the Smoking of Our Generation,” an article by Nilofer Merchant. “The common denominator in the modern workday is our, um, tush,” wrote Merchant, a corporate director [...]
On Jan. 25, when Former First Lady Laura Bush gave the keynote address at a Texas summit on children and nature, she was “moved to tears,” according to the San Antonio Express-News, when she “talked about looking forward to spreading a blanket on the grass and pointing out constellations in the night sky to her [...]
In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, we’ve talked about gun laws and mental-health treatment, amid a host of other responses. But one potential tool has not been mentioned. Now, let me say right off that I don’t pretend that nature is a paragon of peace. Writer Herman Melville once challenged the idea [...]
A New Year’s Wish and Resolution: This year, become a Natural Teacher, a Regional Campaign Leader, a Natural Family, a young Natural Leader, a Pediatrician Who Prescribes Nature, a Let’s G.O.! (Get Outside) event organizer, an architect for change, and more. Or support C&NN through a tax deductible donation. And thanks to those who already connect kids to nature.
It’s the season — that time of year, perhaps especially this year, when we consider our ties to others. At C&NN, we’ve often made the case that nature experiences can strengthen family and friendship bonds, and we’ve made it in our family nature guide, Together in Nature, and in Marti Erickson’s fine C&NN Leadership Paper on [...]
Young people care about the future, and many are leaders in the fight against global warming. Organizations such as Energy Action Coalition have galvanized thousands of students in an impressive effort to build what it calls “the youth clean energy and climate movement.” The success of future environmentalism also depends on connecting more people personally [...]
The thin crescent slice of moon seemed a rip in the blackness; deep maroon spread above the island; the mirrored surface of the lake appeared lit from below. The air was cool; trout began to rise. Coyotes howled and then stopped as suddenly as they had begun. I reached up and banged on the underside [...]
When Annelies Henstra, a Dutch human rights attorney, talks about the right of children to a meaningful connection to the natural world, she calls it the “forgotten human right.” Now, at least for some, it is remembered. In September, the World Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), meeting in Jeju, South Korea, [...]
Short on Vitamin N? Here’s a brief list of nature activities to help you connect your kids, and yourself, to the health and cognitive benefits of nature time. (For a more complete collection of 100 actions, for families, schools, and communities see Last Child in the Woods, from which the following suggestions are drawn.) Invite native [...]
A few years ago, I ran across a particularly intriguing photograph on the back page of a magazine. The photo showed a small boy at the ocean’s edge. Beyond him you could see a gray sky, a distant island, and a long, even wave approaching. The boy had turned to face the photographer. His eyes were [...]
This column is adapted from an essay that originally appeared in the book, “Thirty-Year Plan: Thirty Writers on What We Need to Build a Better Future,” published by The Orion Society, 2012, in which writers imagine the future. These ideas are explored in greater detail in Richard Louv’s 2011 book,” The Nature Principle.” For many [...]
