July 2012 Blog Posts (11)

I submit that there is no better way to spend time with your family than exploring nature and the outdoors. Rejuvenating fresh air, Infinite opportunities to both learn and teach, unlimited stones to overturn, pine cones and sticks to collect, and a world so vast it should take even the most intrepid little explorer hours to investigate before any redirection is required.

Camping is an…

http://www.dahndesign.com/2012/07/25/adventures-in-storytelling-illustrated-fiction-and-the-magic-of-reading/

Not long ago, I stood with my nine-year old daughter Jade on a rocky knoll over the ocean near our home. Minutes earlier, the sun’s orange disk had slipped below the horizon. In the distance, San Francisco began to glow. Much further away, starlit pinpoints began poking through the darkening dome overhead. We watched a clan of turkey vultures execute spiraling descents before settling for the night in a eucalyptus tree. As we began our own short descent toward home, it seemed as good a time…

Look What We Found!

by, Amy Butler

North Branch Nature Center

Montpelier, Vermont

The following conversation was recorded this spring in Harrison Field during an ECO day with children from Union Elementary School.  …

Hi, everyone. I am new to C&NNCONNECT. I am a landscape photographer based in the UK, but have been involved in many aspects of the environment in my life. Earlier this year I created Hug The Planet - websites for kids to upload images of their involvement in nature. As I am funding the entire, global project out of my shallow pockets I have so far only been able to create a HugThePlanet page on facebook and have also worked a deal with Flickr, without its own dedicated website. This is…

Ok -so I was surfing around on youtube and checking out some gardening links. I found some videos on straw bale gardening. Very cool idea. These would make a great kids garden. Maybe a small maze with straw bales and plants growing on the bales.  Maybe a little "playhouse" made of straw bales with little rooms ( no roof) and plants growing on the sides. Good project for schools and summer camps.  No digging , less muddy, very architectural with potential for design ideas!

http://www.dahndesign.com/2012/07/11/stopping-the-ape-and-moving-forward-to-nature/

For the second year in a row, the CLIF Kid Backyard Game of the Year Contest inspired kids from 6-12 to create the ultimate slow games, ones that can be played outdoors with simple or minimal equipment, like hula hoops, balls, or household items.

Last year's winner, 9-year-old Sara from Plaistow, N.H. (shown here with Julie Foudy, three-time Olympic…

Recently I attended a class about biodiversity and sustainability and where I had to create an outdoor atvivity for 5th grade students about "climate change & biodiversity".

I created a very simple activity that had great results.

I took the class to a garden area in school where they could find both deciduous and evergreens trees. Divided them into groups and gave each member a magnifying glass, a jar and a plastic bag.

Each group had to choose two trees of…

The Foot Whisperer & Therapeutic Gardens:  Holland & Germany…