It's time to plan your IditaNature challenge!

[Carmen Field]

IditaNature is just around the corner - it starts Saturday, March 5, just like the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race! Challenge your kids, family, friends, or students to spend as many minutes outside as the Iditarod is long in miles...so 1,150 minutes or 17+ hours over two weeks. If they meet the challenge, the reward can be whatever you dream up. Prizes of outdoor gear or doing something fun together in nature: go out for ice cream, ski a trail and wind up with hot chocolate, go on a photo safari at sunset, visit a local sled dog kennel, build a fort in the yard, go camping, have a picnic...the possibilities are endless! To learn more, visit http://iditarodblogs.com/teachers/2010/08/25/idita-nature-get-outsi... or peruse a 2-page flyer at IditaNatureInfo_2011.docx.

[Carmen Field]

Thanks, Suz. Had a wonderful morning yesterday in Anchorage sharing with Iditarod Teachers from around the U.S. and Canada the reasons behind the creation of IditaNature (and Children & Nature Network as an invaluable resource) and how to incorporate it into schools. Had a fantastic response from this group and their Exxon-Mobil sponsors who knew very little about the movement to reconnect children with nature. One teacher from Florida told me she would use IditaNature to get her students outside over the next 2 weeks in a school that has cut recess because the kids haven't tested well (another teacher reported this, as well)...a pretty backward response by her school administators that she really wants to reverse. Several teachers said they will be looking to the C&NN website for research results and articles related to kids and the value of recess to share with their principals and superintendants.

[Suz Lipman]

Hi Carmen! I love it -- the Iditarod and the inspiring Idita-Nature Challenge are here again. Thank you for this reminder to challenge ourselves, our families and our communities to get outside and enjoy nature. Happy Idita-Nature to you! I hope people will add their activities and progress here.