There is a growing campaign across the U.S. to familiarize children with the wonders of nature and the outdoors. Read further to find out more.
If you asked most children today what their preferred activities are, most likely the majority of them would say; watching TV, being on the computer, surfing the Internet, talking or texting on a cell phone with friends and playing their X-Box or Nintendo. The one common factor in these activities is that they almost exclusively take place indoors with creature comforts close at hand. Sort of like that commercial where the tired and perspiring dad tells his son that he's finally finished building the treehouse, only to have the son, who is sitting in the comfort of the family SUV, ask if it has plush leather seats and a DVD player. When told "No" by the dad the son looks at his friend and the comfort of their surroundings in the SUV and declares, "I think we're good here".
Last year, the state of Connecticut, in conjunction with the State Parks and Forests and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, created a program called "No Child Left Behind" and designed to help children connect with the outdoors and nature, with the hope that an effective result will be to create the next generation of environmentally and ecologically conscious citizens. Now communities and states across the nation such as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, St. Louis, Florida, Wyoming, Colorado and Texas have begun to institute similar campaigns. In addition, the U.S. Forest Service has begun a pilot program called "More Kids In The Woods", a direct response to author Richard Louv's 2005 book "Last Child in the Woods - Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder".
If your child knows more about computers than they do about camping, they're exactly the audience that the "No Child Left Behind" campaign is searching for and hoping to imbue with the wonder of discovering all the treasures of the great outdoors.
