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Take A Child Outside Week

September 24-30th, 2009 is Take a Child Outside Week.
For ideas and information visit the take a child outside week webpage.
Happy exploring!

Nature Bags

Nature Bag is a mom-run business with the vision to reconnect their families with nature. Each bag contains 20 fun activites to engage children with the natural world! (Picture from naturebag.com)

Children in the Woods

I am happy to say that my son is not suffering from nature-deficit disorder, he learned to walk in the pine forest featured in the photograph above, it's a rare day when we fail to venture outside to learn from the natural world.

In 2004 as a third grade teacher, I proposed that my class make a small garden on the school property... I wish I had pictures to show of my nine year olds eating radish's and lettuce. My love for gardening and nature have carried me through the good times and the bad times growing up. As a geologist, I have tried to understand the Earth and know things about the rock types and history, rocks are our universal foundation. Nature is a foundation for me.

I am so excited about the national movement to engage children with nature. Although it does seem a little bazaar that we need a movement to get children outside. That said; I want to share some helpful webpage links for parents and educators interested new ideas for taking children outside.

Richard Louv , author of Last Child In the Woods, is outlined so beautifully the disconnect from nature that our children are experiencing and the subsequent consequences. His book is a best-seller and a must read.

Countless organizations have jumped on board to sail into a new time, where we can hear children playing in the woods, along streams, through the mountains. Check out what's going on in your neck of the woods!

Children in Nature Collaborative
Children's Nature Institute
Children and Nature Network
GreenHour
No Child Left Inside

Please email me or comment with additional links that you know of specific to your region.

Thanks for reading!

Fly Like A Butterfly

Last week we went searching for caterpillers. We found a few, clipped some milkweed and brought them home to watch the transformation from caterpiller to butterfly.

Here is a picture of our caterpiller friend nibbling on milkweed. When I took this picture, I was unaware that the caterpiller was weaving a silk mat to attach to during the next stage of development: the pupa.

Here is this same caterpiller a few hours later, it has secured itself to the milkweed and become a J shape. It hung here for about a day. The next day, I decided the caterpillers needed some fresh air so, I took the vase of milkweed to the back porch; I was really busy all day but came home to find a pupa (chrysallis). Here are a couple pictures of this beautiful structure.



In Rhode Island, we have a few week window in early September to watch this awesome event. The monarch butterflies begin their migration to Mexico and lay their eggs on the milkweed plants along the roadsides. For the past three years I have tried to "catch" some caterpillers. It's really fun to watch this happening.

More later... the chrysallis will hang there for a week or two as the butterfly forms.

Beyond Coexistance

Each of us contain within us this unique and perfect balance/ centeredness.
Find some moments each day to pause, to reflect.

Here's a moment I experienced the other day, a reminder of the activity of the sun,
and the stillness of the moon. Both are so awesome and dance with each other.

Go beyond coexisting. Sink deeper into the soul.
Dance.
Allow the radiance of activity to shine on the stillness of being.

Peace is every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.

It turns the endless path to joy.

- Tinh Thuy

A September Getaway

Jeremiah loves the beach.

Summer time beach trips here in southern Rhode Island can be very stressful during the tourist season... but now, after "they" have left we get to really enjoy the warm water, cool air, moist sand, awesome sunsets, and as we saw tonight, the full moon over the ocean.

I am very blessed. Many years ago, my grandfather bought a little cottage on one of the salt ponds that lead to the ocean. Since I was a few days old, I have been enjoying the beach by arriving through the ponds in a boat.

Tonight Jeremiah, my father, my step-mom, and I voyaged across the pond, scurried through grasses, and bushes of the sand dunes, finally arriving at the ocean for an evening dinner picnic.

The moment we saw the water, Jeremiah ran full blast into the crashing surf.


The sun set, and the almost-full moon peaked out from behind a gentle veil of clouds. As we drove back across the water, the moon came into full silver randiance, flanked by the cool blues of the night sky while the sun sank deeper beneath the horizon leaving behind the warm daytime hues of yellow, orange, pink and purple.

A splendid evening.