Last Child in the Woods & EE Week

I've been reading Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Have you heard about this book by Richard Louv?

I've been meaning to read this guide for some time; when I heard about it a few years back, I only skimmed a paperback copy while drinking a hazelnut latte at Barnes & Noble.



It's easy to think about nature and going outdoors this time if year, isn't? When the weather is glorious, when tomatoes need to be planted, when flowers start blooming... It's easy to say, "kids, lets go outside."

Just being outside has value, enormous value, no matter what we are doing... Playing with sticks, looking at clouds, walking across rocks...

Still, how can we as homeschoolers spend more time outside, educating our children? That's the question I was trying to answer early, early this morning when I skipped to the back of the book and looked at item #73 on Louv's list of "100 Actions We Can Take." Three website links are given under "green the K-12 curricula," and I will share these with you now.




The most exciting part of my web search? The Classroom Earth site redirected to a new page, declaring this week (yes THIS WEEK!) Environmental Education Week, or EE Week for short. EE Week is April 13-19, 2014 and so many resources for incorporating many school subjects can be found on their site. One activity I might try is listed on a page of ways to infuse technology in nature studies.  How about that?!?

Project Learning Tree has activity ideas, even for those days you can't get outside.

The ProjectWILD site could keep you inspired for quite a while. The sample activity "No water off a duck's back" we might try this week; we have been raising two duckings reading about ducks.

What will you do for EE Week?

Have you read Last Child in the Woods (affiliate link)?