Category Archives: thoughts
Monday thought of the week: the play room
A thought: … I think it’s fine for kids to pick, pluck, move, squish, haul and use the physical equivalent of their “outdoor voices” outdoors. If we want kids to have any true, deep feelings for nature, they can’t grow … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week & a new book for parents – Let Them Eat Dirt
A thought: When children are out walking or playing in a green space… the risk of getting infected with microbes that carry human diseases decreases drastically. Allow your children to touch anything they want (except animal waste), including dirt, mud, … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week: little outdoor people
A thought: Kids are natural little outdoor people. It is we, the adults, that turn them into indoor people. – Mark Jenkins, in the Foreword to Jennifer Bove, ed., Wild with Child: Adventures of Families in the Great Outdoors (Palo Alto: Solas … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week: natural playmates
[I’ve been neglecting my Monday thought of the week and Wednesday photo of the week posts recently. I enjoy posting them, and hope my readers enjoying reading and seeing them… so let’s get back to it!] A thought: Nature and … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week: chart the journey
A thought: We can only expose children to experiences that etch lasting memories; they will chart the journey of learning from there. – Michael Lanza, Before They’re Gone: A Family’s Year-Long Quest to Explore America’s Most Endangered National Parks (Boston: Beacon … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week: experiences not entertainment
A thought: Children need experiences, not entertainment, in play. The more kids can do, see, feel and experience for themselves in play, the more connected they will feel to the world, and less overwhelmed. – Kim John Payne (Simplicity Parenting)
Monday thought of the week: all the world
A thought: Whatever landscape a child is exposed to early on, that will be the sort of gauze through which he or she will see all the world afterward. – Wallace Stegner
Monday thought of the week: something rare and very beautiful
A thought: It is important to me that my children can distinguish a vulture from a golden eagle by the cant of its wings. It reassures me to know that they can recognize the evening call of robins and the … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week: fabric of connectedness
A thought: Public lands are part of our fabric of connectedness in this country; through our common ownership and appreciation of them, we are vested in one another, state to state, region to region, hunter to schoolteacher to tattooist to … Continue reading
Monday thought of the week: a sacred fire
A thought: Children are natural explorers. They have the true explorer’s interest in their immediate surroundings as well as in faraway places, and they are eager to know why things are as they are. If you are a wise parent, … Continue reading