Did your childhood involve mud, free play, and adventure? Will your children or grandchildren be permitted the same opportunities? Globally the geography of childhood is rapidly shrinking. As kids spend more time inside and less time exploring they are much less connected to nature. They are not being allowed to develop the sense of place that fosters sustainability. Nor are they able to truly engage and fully develop their wonders. Their time, spaces, and consequently experiences, are throughly impoverished. This has tremendous physical, social, and psychological implications.

 

From birth to adulthood there are many positive benefits to spending time in nature. Children of all ages need movement and multi-sensory learning experiences. They need to make tangible connections through first-hand experiences. They need to build, create, explore, and imagine.

 

Nature is not only large game preserves or national parks far away. It is also in our backyards and schoolyards, our puddles and ponds. It is important for people to learn about their local environments because “in the end we conserve only what we love; we love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.” Baba Dioum, 1968