Nature's Children

My husband & son in the Good Old Days!

LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS
by Richard Louv
          © 2005 Subtitled: SAVING OUR CHILDREN FROM NATURE-DEFICIT DISORDER. This is one of the best-written books I’ve come across about children and nature. I started reading it last year, but it was so info-intense and fascinating that I was reading it so slowly--- I only got through half of it before I had to take it back to the library. I’m glad I finally found time to return to it.
          One sentence from the book sums up its importance: “Our children are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world.” The author is absolutely right. My whole childhood (I’m a Boomer, by the way) was spent playing outdoors, and I’ll bet I’m not the only child of that generation that did so. Whether we lived in town or in the country, our mothers never worried where we were or what we were doing. We were playing outside! Wandering, exploring, collecting, building, digging, and having spontaneous, natural fun…
          In our modern world, I’ve noticed that you seldom see children playing outside anymore. Stranger-danger is only one reason. Unless children are involved in organized outdoor sports like Little League or soccer, they’re usually found holed up indoors playing video games or texting their friends or watching hours and hours of mind-numbing TV. Intimacy with nature has become a thing of the past for too many of today’s children, unless they are lucky enough to have parents who value the educational and play value of being outdoors.
          This book explains the cause of “nature-deficit disorder”, shows what people are doing on the personal, local and national level to bring more life-enhancing nature into the lives of children, and gives 100 great ideas for more direct involvement in the “No Child Left Inside” movement. I recommend it for parents, grandparents and parents-to-be as one of the best things you can do for your child(ren)’s development and well-being.