Kids are fatter than ever, watch more TV than ever before, and play and use their imagination increasingly less.
This does not bode well for them or our planet.
As Senegalese poet and naturalist Baba Dioum said,
We will protect only what we love, we will love only what we understand, we will understand only what we are taught.
If today’s children do not get outside to play in nature, with nature, they will have little reason or desire to protect the environment when they are adults.
Parents have the power to change this! Inspire play. Make active choices. Make TV the dessert of your child’s at home time, not the main dish.
Children will fight this (especially if they are use to spending the majority of the day in front of the TV).
Fight back!
Fight with patience. Fight with opportunity. Fight with love, knowing that what you are doing is for the good of your child and the planet.
Test results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened. The study showed that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens, and that children’s involvement in informal gardening experiences has as much impact on their environmental outlook as involvement in formal school-based programs.
Kids growing up in the mountains where I live love to tie young trees’ trunks into knots. As you drive along the roads, you often see older trees with trunks twisted long ago by young hands. Plantware has taken this concept even further in designing a living playground for children by manipulating roots and trunks.
Plantware has made benches, love seats, street lights, gates, etc. from living trees. “Kinder Forest: A Living Playground” takes the idea even further:
KinderForest gives children real trees to play with, gives parents a natural alternative for their children and gives earth urban reforestation that is functional, enjoyable and green. Creating structures from living trees means that ~95% of the playground’s mass is taken from the air using local sunlight and rain. No gasoline-burning chainsaws, trucks, ships or waste. Such structures can live for 700 years and are self repairing, earthquake safe, oxygen producing and provide a habitat for wildlife coinciding with their purpose for humans.
We talk a lot of this blog about the benefits of children being outside and exploring nature. We cite research that shows how it helps cognitive development and increases awareness of our natural world.
Now, you can add one more reason to the list. Australian researchers have found that children who spend the most time outdoors are the ones least likely to be nearsighted.
Myopia (nearsightedness or shortsightedness) has become far more common in recent years and experts suggest as many as 80 percent of people in highly-educated groups are sufferers.
This is a statistic that I have heard for years and I have always attributed my own nearsightedness to those many hours spent reading a book under the covers by flashlight. As a dedicated bookworm, I’ve always considered it a badge of honor.
I’m glad someone is trying to do something about children not getting enough fresh air and outdoor time. I just read mcmilker’s post about the No Child Left Inside campaign. I wish I had known about it sooner. I would have been promoting it, and sending information about it to my daughter’s elementary school.
McMonagle Elementary, part of the Westwood Heights School district in Michigan has cut daily recess from their curriculum. This is a school that houses K-5th grades. Those poor kids are going to be stuck inside all day unless their teachers take pity on them and take them outside for some fresh air.
If you have a cub scout or boy scout yor probably receive Boy’s Life Magazine. For the past several issues, they’ve had green topics featured: green vehicles, ocean and reef conservation, eco-friendly fun, and sporting green.
The newest edition, September 2008, features a whole section called “Be a Green Guy”. It has five projects, some of which my family is definitely going to be trying out (both guys and gals).
We spend a lot of time on our organic lawn. Not only does the green grass provide a psychological respite to the dry, hot summer, but it also provides our home with forest fire protection. In other more urban areas experiencing drought conditions, many people are seeking alternatives to a living lawn, such as astroturf. Whatever your families choice for a lawn (or not to have a lawn), the safety of this play surface for your children should be a concern.
Pesticides and Herbicides in Lawn Care
As child growing up in suburban Ohio, I remember seeing little flags on my neighbor’s chemically treated lawn that read “Just fertilized. Keep pets and children off”. Even at a young age, I wondered how safe these chemical applications were. According to Mother Jones:
One common herbicide in popular “weed and feed” lawn-care products, 2,4-D, constituted about 50 percent of Agent Orange, and has been linked to birth defects, neurological problems, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and liver and kidney damage. In Canada, as many as 160 municipalities have banned the use of pesticides with 2,4-D.
A few years ago, we installed new playground equipment at our school. As the teacher in charge of the project, I was encouraged by parents to explore the option of recycled tires for cushioning, which comes in either a mulch or mat. At first, I thought this was a good idea as it involved recycling and really does provide a great cushioning, but in the end we chose pea gravel for cost, environmental, and safety concerns.
My short vacation this year was spent in far Northern California, hiking, trekking through caverns and climbing up and down hilly beaches of the Mt. Shasta region with my son, my best friend and her son. At the end of the day we retired to our eco hotel for a bit of luxury …ahhhh.
While the whole concept of an eco hotel conjures up hefty price tags, The
With summer in full gear displays of sunscreen appear in every drug, discount and grocery store and many other retail outlets as well. We grab handfuls, dig up bottles from last year and liberally apply it whenever we take a step out of doors. The ozone layer is thinning…didn’t you hear?
But what are we really putting on our skin? A recent study raises some concerns.
…. a new investigation of 952 name-brand sunscreens, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that 4 out of 5 sunscreen products offer inadequate protection from the sun, or contain ingredients with significant safety concerns. Leading brands were the worst offenders: None of market leader Coppertone’s 41 sunscreen products met EWG’s criteria for safety and effectiveness, and only 1 of 103 products from Banana Boat and Neutrogena, the second- and third-largest manufacturers, are recommended by EWG.
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.
