Kids aren’t simply born loving nature. You’ve got to help them to develop an appreciation for nature, so in turn they want to protect this planet. Good ways to do this include:

Hold a family hiking day once a month.
Encourage more outdoor minded field trips at your child’s school.
Plan games and activities that encourage outdoor time such as bird watching, rock collecting, plant identification, nature scavenger hunts, and more.
Get involved in your local community garden, or if you have the means, planting a garden at home.
Plan green travel – i.e. for family vacations, plan a camping trip vs. a trip to …read more

Getting your kids outside more often sometimes means adjusting your own outdoor space to fit your kids needs. Going wild is a great way to get the kiddos interested in what’s happening outside their door. Here’s how.

If you like a manicured yard, that’s fine, but if you leave one small corner a little wild, it’ll attract cool creatures like worms, snails, and pillbugs that kids will like to see. Creatures like these enjoy a little cover – so a pile of leaves, a few more weeds than normal, and so fourth encourages visits.
Make sure to go native to attract the …read more

Gardening is one great way to get your kids outside. However, if you don’t allow them to stay busy, toddlers can create more work for you. Here are some tasks toddlers and young children can help with.
Placing seeds: Put a few seeds at a time in a medicine cup so they don’t go nuts.
Pulling deadheads: I remember popping off my mom’s deadhead flowers as a kid; and it was pretty fun. You can let little ones pull off dead flower heads, dingy leaves, or even have them pull up dead plant. Give them a pair of kid friendly gloves.
Worm …read more

Kisha, one tree hugging mama, sent us some great photos of her adorable little one and this message about the shots…
“This is my daughter, Savie, and my dog Halley playing the creek here in AZ. We have a campsite up in the Chiricahua Mountains. We go there every year to the same site and they have so much fun there, and as you can see they are enjoying themselves.”
Kids and dogs and creeks – oh my. Too cute. This little one is loving the water.

This next one is my favorite..

The “Hey, you got me by surprise” shot!

As always we …read more

A new release from HealthDay News relates that young children who live on tree lined streets, or technically in neighborhoods with plenty of trees, have lower rates of asthma than children who live among fewer trees.

In New York City, asthma is the leading reason for hospital admissions among the 15 year old and younger set. Research looked at where these children live, and were able to directly correlate less trees in the immediate environment with more asthma admissions. This research held up even after factoring in sources of pollution, socioeconomic status and population density.
Researchers note that tree density itself may …read more

If you’re unplugged to save energy; cool. If you’re unplugged and celebrating TV turnoff week, well that’s fine too. I’m not unplugged though for the week, and here’s why.
It’s not a realistic campaign. While I agree with the reasoning, I don’t much agree with how they’re trying to pull this whole, get the family together or get moving or what have you.
First off they lie, or at least exclude decision making processes:
From the TV Turnoff Network: “All TV is passive, sedentary and non-experiential. Most viewers tend to watch show after show–not individual programs. Instead of watching a documentary about birds, …read more

These photos sent by mama Shawna are truly breathtaking. I’m so jealous. I want to take photos this nice.

See how right I am – just beautiful. Shawna notes that these shots, “Are from a camping trip we went on this last weekend to South East Utah. It’s called Buck Horn Wash! Very beautiful!” I agree.
Many parts of Utah are exceptionally beautiful. We’ve been there often and Cedar loves visiting. It’s a great family friendly state to visit with plenty of get up and go activities. During our trips there Cedar managed to sled, ice skate, and ski, all before he …read more

Technically it’s not really winter yet but it sure feels like it. It’s been so cold lately that Cedar and I spend more time indoors which is fine; we do lots of fun stuff but really we all need to get outside. Cold or not. Nature doesn’t take a winter break and neither should we. Your kids will enjoy preserving the earth when they learn to enjoy it in all forms; cold, warm, wet and all.
Today, get up and find one reason to get outside and enjoy nature.

Need an idea? Here are 25 good ones.
1. It’s wet, it’s cold, find …read more