Earth Day!

Earth Day is a favorite in our household. We look forward to celebrating the Earth together as a family and we do many things all month with our business to help promote this special day. In previous years we have planted trees, worked on nature crafts, and celebrated in the park with friends.

It is wonderful that we can all take a moment and think about what we can do to help ease our stress on the planet and start conversations about reducing waste, working on renewable energies, and cleaning our rivers and streams.

Let's all remember that none of this effort is ever going to do any good unless we can get our children to buy into the idea of living green. No matter how much effort we put into Earth Day nothing will get better until the future generations make the decision to progressively move our society to live sustainably. The only way to do that is to teach the children to love nature. If they truly feel the connection they will preserve it to share with their children.

So please talk to your children about Earth Day. Make it fun, enjoyable, and educational. Teaching your children well is the single largest contribution you can have in truly honoring Mother Earth.

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." ~Native American Proverb

National Parks Week

It is National Parks Week and what a great time to get your children outside and exploring in our nations 394 National Parks. You can visit any National Park from April 16th to 24th FREE of Admission.

The park system has protected many amazing pieces of property and it is important that the children can see these natural wonders. So get out there and explore your local parks or make a trip to see something new. It will be a trip your children will never forget.

We are lucky to live near Rocky Mountain National Park where our family explores many times each year. We visited Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park about two weeks ago and have planned our annual trip to Great Sand Dunes National Park in June.

Please share your favorite National Park in the comments. Now get out there and experience it.

Children in Nature: Make it a Game

About a week ago we arrived in Moab, UT after about 7 hours in the car. The sun was setting and I had a tent to set up, a fire to build, dinner to cook, and some relaxing of my own to do. My two daughters had spent all day trying their best to be good in the car but the excitement of a 3 day camping trip was more than they could handle.

As I worked on setting up the tent and unpacking the car the girls kept asking me to do things with them. I was happy that they were excited about the trip but I just couldn't give them the attention at that moment. Just as I was about to get angry at them for not understanding the work I had to do, I stopped and helped them think of a game.

There were two large rocks side by side. I took a break from working and said, "watch this". I ran around the the two rocks making a figure 8. Then I asked the girls if they could do it faster than I did. Suddenly those two boring rocks that they hadn't noticed was now a game. They took turns running around and around the rocks seeing who could do it faster. Then they tried skipping around them. Then walking backwards, galloping, scissor steps, baby steps, and walking with waggling their arms.

Soon the tent was up, the car was unpacked, and the fire was burning. The games expanded and changed each night but a quick minute of my time was enough to get their imaginations started and the games never stopped.