Last Child in the Woods

I recently read a summary/article about the book The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv.  In short the book is about how there's a need to save our children from the lack of disconnect to nature.  He calls it nature deficit disorder and believes many culturally current childhood issues such as ADHD, depression and obesity are a result of this major divide between our children and the great outdoors.  Although I've only read exerts from the book I think that Mr. Louv may be on to something here.  I see exactly what he references happening in our own neighborhood.  There's perfectly built fences and paved sidewalks, there's constant parent supervision, there's culd-e-sacs and isolated subdivisions, there's beautifully landscaped neighborhood pools and ipods, cell phones, and many other methods of being incessantly plugged in.  Where are the "woods" to explore, the creeks to catch crayfish, the open fields to pick dandelions, the kids playing outside until the street lights go on?  Where are the mud pies?  We used to sit at the edge of my drive way and find puddles, sticks, and rocks and make mud pies for what seemed like hours!  It's very sad to think my own children will be part of this "Last Child in the Woods" generation.  I've written about this a bit in previous posts but only recently came across this book.  So what did I do upon reading about it?  I took Mallory outside to make good old fashion mud pies.  I encouraged her to do it herself, feel the textures and most importantly get messy!!  I would love to report that she adored the event but she wasn't as delighted about feeling nature as I would have liked her to be.  After about 10 minutes she said "play bubbles now."  I was momentarily disappointed and then I realized how young she was and all I can do is continue to give her those experiences and hope that one day she seeks them out herself!
                                                                         

A Walk in the Park

It was a beautiful spring late/afternoon evening, a bit chilly but overall it was lovely outside so I decided to take Mallory to our local park. Jillian stayed home with daddy. I pushed Mallory in her favorite red car ride on toy, she calls it "Malo's car" and off we went...

Typically Mallory loves the swings but this time we focused more on the slide. She's learning to climb up the stairs all by herself and is getting braver at trying to go down the slide by herself. It's so funny to think last spring/summer we were pretty much limited to the swings because she wasn't even crawling yet at this time last year.

This time we also walked a little of the path leading into the savanna near the park. We explored dandelions, sticks, and grass. Mallory is still a little unsure of her outside elements but it will be fun to watch her as she discovers the beauty of nature. I hope to provide her as many opportunities as possible to expose her to the great outdoors. I want her to love it like I did; to splash in rain puddles, catch fireflies, pick bouquets of dandelions, make mud pies, and to see the outside world in a way that only a child could! I'm not sure why but we somehow seem to lose that wonderment of nature as we get older. I can't remember the last time I picked up a dandelion blew the seeds and made a wish, however there's nothing like a walk in the park to give you those moments again and there's nothing like sharing it with your 22 month old daughter!