If yours is a family who loves to spend time outdoors, chances are you’ll be in the water from time to time. Our boys’ favorite days are the ones spent by a creek, lake, river, or pool. There are rocks to skip, fish to catch, diving boards to jump off of.
But as much fun [...]
1. Go on a picnic.
2. Stage a relay race.
3. Find a creek and catch crawfish or minnows.
4. Hunt for snakes or frogs in your garden.
5. Climb a tree.
6. Read a book under a tree.
7. Pick vegetables in the garden.
8. Take a hike.
9. Pick wildflowers and share them [...]
This Saturday, May 22, has been declared “Take Your Children to the Park … and Leave Them There” Day by Lenore Skenazy, a mom and author of Free-Range Kids and owner of the blog of the same name. In the name of encouraging creativity and activity, Skenazy encourages parents of school-age children to let their [...]
Most kids would give anything to have a sprawling tree house of their own in the backyard. But if they can’t, the next best thing is to play in someone else’s tree house. At the Huntsville Botanical Garden, the Tremendous Treehouses exhibit is just the place for kids to adopt a tree house for a [...]
Last summer, I posted about some of my family’s favorite children’s books about gardens and gardening. But there are so many good ones out there, and I recently discovered the “Growing Good Kids Excellence in Children’s Literature" Book Awards Program, sponsored by the American Horticultural Society’s Junior Master Gardeners, which recognizes the best children’s books [...]
If you’re a gardener who spends a lot of time with your toes in the dirt, every day is “earth day.” But today, as more than 1 billion people in 190 countries participate in ecological celebrations, it’s Earth Day with a capital “E” and “D.” It’s a great day to remind your kids (and yourself) [...]
Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with Sarah Palin. Whether you like her or not, we can all get on board with getting outside. And in Palin’s home state of Alaska, both dogs and people are taking to the outdoors this week for the opening of the Iditarod, the iconic dogsled race. The race [...]
Thanksgiving may have been only a week ago, but we’re already in the throes of Christmas around my house. And while I certainly don’t want Christmas to be all about buying and getting, I have to admit that finding cool gifts is part of the fun. (And it’s nice to have “Christmas shopping” marked off [...]
