Just as I have little understanding of boredom, I also never find myself needing an activity while experiencing nature beyond hiking and observing; however, children are a different breed. They sometimes need help focusing their energy.  Author Jennifer Ward provides 52 outdoor activities.  From “Playground for Poets” to “Five Fine Forts”, the summer boredom crisis is solved (and these activities are limited to warm summer months).  Furthermore, these games and projects are designed for children ages 8-12.  Here’s an example:

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I believe in limiting my children’s access to technology, in turning the television off (and I say THE because we have only one tv in our house), in putting on the wellies and getting outside. Unfortunately many children spend far to much time indoors. Schools are limiting P.E. and recess. Kids wile away the afternoons playing video games and hanging out in virtual rooms online. We are seeing rising rates of childhood obesity, diabetes, ADD & ADHD, lethargy and depression. That’s not the future I want for my children.

Looking back on my childhood, we were seldom inside. We spent hour upon hour outside making dirt tracks under the big oak tree, riding bicycles, playing red rover, gardening and making many a mud pie. Heck, I remember dissecting dragonflies, slicing a worm between its hearts to make several worms and allowing potato bugs to crawl on my hands.

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Thom Henley is well known in the world of conservation, having been instrumental in protecting and forming Canada’s Gwaii Haanas National Park on the Queen Charlotte Archipelago. He is an associate professor of the Stream Keeper Academy in Washington State and serves as Honorary Director of the Rediscovery International Foundation. The author or co-author of nine other books, his environmental accomplishments are too numerous to keep listing here.

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Have you ever considered doing “summer camp” in your own backyard? I used to be the Nature Director at a summer camp and can promise you, the magic that can be discovered on a summer afternoon can last a lifetime!

Not only do I write for Eco Child’s Play, I write a series of novels called Gaia Girls Book Sereis. In Gaia Girls, the heroines are granted cool powers and sent on “Gaia Missions” to help the earth. They are able to do this because they are so connected and aware of the Earth (Gaia). I suspect that the majority of us reading and writing here at Green Options spent a portion of our childhood outside getting connected and I want to do my part to make sure the next generation loves Earth enough to care for it. So this summer, I’m combining my nature director experience, with the fantastical fiction. I’m inviting one and all to participate in “The Summer of Gaia!”

Each week, I set you on a Mission that will open up all the magic Gaia has to offer.

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At least 40 percent of American infants and toddlers aren’t getting enough vitamin D, according to researchers from Children’s Hospital in Boston.

The study made particular note of the fact that breast feed children may be at a higher risk and recommends both mother and child take vitamin D supplements.

Breast-feeding is a known risk factor for low vitamin D levels in infants, which is why many pediatricians routinely recommend vitamin D supplementation for breast-fed infants. Other factors that may contribute to low levels of vitamin D include not drinking enough vitamin D-fortified milk (for toddlers), staying out of the sun or using sunscreen.

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