Monday, August 5, 2013

Simple things

Forgive me, I have been busy and slacked off.  Life is like that we all know.  However it is still no excuse.  I've been thinking of my new post for a while now.  I thought it should be about simple things.  Taking the children outside and doing simple things.  Paying attention to mother nature and sharing that with them.  We have to.  We can't afford not to.


Reducing the deficit- healing the broken bond between our young and nature- is in our self-interest, not only because aesthetics or justice demands it, but also because our mental, physical, and spiritual health depends upon it.    "Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv"



Drive up the hill, put the kids on the roof of the car and watch the sunset and eat a pizza.

Stop, look up at the clouds on a windy stormy day.  Lie down in the grass with them, chill.  No plan, no agenda.  Just drink in what the sky, the trees, the afternoon light.   Talk about it.

Nature only refreshes.  Thirsty and parched from the hectic, power driven, artificial light of our schools and offices.  Surrounded by electric run devices that drain our brains as quickly as they fill them; nature replentishes with silence, beauty, and wonder.
We experience community outside.  Not facebook community, but living, pulsing, in your face community.  Nature gives us the opportunity to learn, to travel, to explore, to touch, feel, see, hear, and know.  Our children think they know by what they read and see on the screen.  Seeing  a frog through someone else's eyes does not give that same sense of thrill as holding it.
Forget the pool, spend a day, an afternoon at the river.

The rivers and lakes hold small miracles that entertain for hours.  They are in the greatest, most effective classroom, the classroom of nature.

Walk in the canyon, wade in the river.

Climb a tree.


Buy binoculars.
Go bird watching.




Camp in your back yard, drive to the top of a mountain, look up and count the stars.


Build a snow lantern