into the wild family nature club hits the trail!

The first meeting of Into the Wild Family Nature Club is fast approaching. Next Saturday, January 31st, we will meet at the trailhead of Oyster River Nature Park at 11am. From there we will hike to the beach. This is a beautiful and kid-friendly trail with great views of the Oyster River, neighbouring farms, and the Discovery Passage. We are sure to see bald eagles at the point where the river meets the sea, so bring your binoculars. The beach itself is a great place to stop for a rest, enjoy a bite to eat, and for the kids to have some time for unstructured play.

We hope to see you there!

Get Outside! It’s in our Nature (March 5–8, 2009)

BC's Second Regional Children, Family & Nature Forum is coming up in March.  The theme: connecting children and families with nature.  Richard Louv, Author of Last Child in the Woods, will be speaking.  He is also offering a free public lecture on Saturday, March 7th as part of the forum.  If you are interested in the development of the relationship between children and nature, you may seriously want to check this out.  For more information see the Nature Child Reunion website.  I've posted a link on the right-hand side of the page.

change of date

Please notice the change of date for the first meeting of Into The Wild Family Nature Club.  We will be meeting on January 31st instead of February 7th.  I realize this date is neither the first nor the third Saturday, but I have the opportunity to go home for a visit on the weekend of the 7th and so needed to change the date.  All subsequent meetings will be on the first and third Saturdays - barring unforeseen events!  Hope to see you on the trails.

so what is a family nature club?

Families getting together to enjoy and explore nature - such a simple, yet radical idea. Kids running wild outside, what could be more simple and natural than that? Dragging ourselves from our televisions and computer screens and bigbox store parking lots, what could be more radical? In a world of ever-present digital media and rampant over-consumption couldn't we all use more time outside with our kids? And wouldn't it be great if we could meet other like-minded families while we did it?

The idea for Family Nature Clubs grew out a movement to reconnect children with nature. One book that has helped inspire the movement is Last Child In the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. I learned about the book and the movement from a great website called the Children & Nature Network. It's also where I learned about Family Nature Clubs and read about some already established clubs in the US. Check out the links on the right side of the page for these great resources.

I was an advocate for spending time in nature with my own children before I ever learned about Louv's ideas. I love being in the outdoors and value the joy and restoration nature provides me. Why wouldn't I want to share that with my children? Yet, as a mother of two boys aged five and two, I am also aware how having small children can make getting into nature, and just about everything else, a bit more complicated. I know lots of "outdoorsy" people who don't get outside much since they have become parents.

That's where Louv's ideas came in and provided some of the inspiration for starting Into the Wild Family Nature Club. Maybe if families had a regularly scheduled time to play in nature and they could share the experience with others more families would get into the wild. And just maybe those shared experiences would play a role in instilling a lifelong love of nature and the outdoors in our children. Something I think we can all get excited about.