Barrington Academy - child care and learning center, Stockbridge, Georgia

child care and development in Stockbridge, Georgia

Wise and Wonderful October 2013

WHY KIDS NEED NATURE...

An interview with Richard Louv

by Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whether you grew up in a suburb, on a farm, or in a big city, you probably spent a lot of time playing outside, getting dirty, and coming home happy. Maybe you watched ants making anthills in your backyard, climbed trees in the park, or simply lay in the grass contemplating the drifting clouds.

Unfortunately, young children today do not have as many direct experiences with nature, and it's taking a toll. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, maintains that this disconnect from the natural world is producing ill effects in both mind and body. But he's optimistic that well-meaning, forward-thinking parents and educators can close the kid-nature gap.

"We should not think of a child's experience in nature as an extracurricular activity," says Louv. "It should be thought of as vital to children's health and development." The editors of Scholastic's Parent & Child talked with Louv about his book.

Read the Interview.....CLICK HERE

Nature Short Story for Parents & Kids: FLEUR AND THE PHOTOSYNTHESIS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once upon a time, there was a white daisy called Fleur who lived in a very big field full of other daisies. All the plants had a very important function in life, and that was to perform photosynthesis.

Fleur was a very young plant, but she was also very intelligentbecause from the moment she was born she never stopped observing the actions of a yellow daisy that lived beside her.

One day, when she was just a little daisy, Fleur asked the yellow flower: "Yellow daisy, what's photosynthesis? The other plants say that's what we do." And the yellow daisy answered: "Well, photosynthesis is when we plants absorb the light from the sun and water from the ground to feed ourselves and grow. That way we also help the nature maintain its balance."

"But how do we help it maintain its balance? What exactly do we do?" Fleur asked, for she was very curious.

"Well, the plants on the ground are in charge of taking in a gas called carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and breathing out another gas called oxygen. That's how our stalks and trunks and branches and leaves grow. In the sea, the algae and seaweed does the same. And that's how humans have enough oxygen to breathe and live." And that was how Fleur understood what photosynthesis was and what it was for.

THE END