We have another feature for you this week, written by Stephanie Rach of IAGMedia, creator of the Let’s Go Chipper environmental program, and the Let’s Go Chipper app. Stephanie lends her summary on the history of Earth Day, provides ideas for weaving nature into our daily lives, and illustrates how she aims to pave a virtual path to the great outdoors. Get your hiking boots ready…
For many people, Earth Day is a tradition born when the “green” movement started a few years ago. But in reality this is our 41st year. It’s hard to imagine that during a decade of political upheaval, precarious space missions, and the birth of the Beatles band … a U S senator by the name of Gaylord Nelson, proposed a nationwide environmental protest. The Wisconsin senator would later acknowledge that the event was a gamble but “it worked.”
Earth Day is now an internationally recognized and celebrated day filled with community-based organizations coming together to educate about global warming, teach or promote sustainable actions to save the earth, and also spend a few hours cleaning up local beaches, parks and habitats.
In recent years, the emotional impact of saving the environment has reached such an overwhelming level, that we might want to stop and re-evaluate how we express environmentalism to our children. While “eco-anxiety” may land in the pages of articles and newly released research papers – excite, engage, and playfully educate is still the standard when connecting our youngest children to nature as they are the future environmental stewards.
How do you go about doing this? …by playfully engaging yourself. Studies show that family time is pinched because of both parents working, over-scheduled activities, and the sedentary life but by incorporating unstructured play into your daily program, you can help set the intuitive mindset and foster a more confident, healthy-minded child.
Here are a few healthy habits we teach in schools and community family events to incorporate from the home to the hilltop:
- Open the window and let the fresh air in: As the warmer weather approaches be a part of the “rise and shine” moment in your child’s day. Pull the curtains back and let the outside air in. As your child wakes ask about the sounds outside to peak curiosity, get silly and pretend to be an animal waking up: “How does a frog yawn?”; “Did the early bird catch the worm?”; “Can you make your arms as big as the sun?” These moments and movements are already connecting a child to the great outdoors and readying the body and spirit for the day
- Branch out: In a lecture by Richard Louv, author or Last Child in the Woods, he acknowledged that the preservation of our parks is important but not at the sacrifice of keeping kids swinging in trees. Next time you walk along a path or park with trees give yourself a “Tarzan” moment and just swing from a branch. Hoist your child up and just let them feel the sensation of holding themselves up. This is play. Ask how the branches feel, what does the tree smell like, what are the colors? You are connecting
- Fifteen minutes and just fifteen feet: You don’t have to make it to the mountain top to be a true explorer. Patience will pay-off if you allow yourself to explore at the level your child is capable of – doing this now will instill a positive mindset towards hiking or just walking to the local store. Get down and turn over leaves and rocks, follow the sounds, walk like a tree and wave your hands to catch clouds. The moment is worth the trip.
April is truly a month of new beginnings. From Easter and Passover to the first sprouts of spring, the opportunity to get outside and play is here. And though we acknowledge one day as Earth Day the goal should be to fill every day with a meaningful connection with earth.
As a child of get-out-and-play parents and an upbringing surrounded by 4-H meetings filled with growing organic squash the size of footballs, chasing pigs around the back fields, and riding horses into the hills surrounding what actually is a suburban community today; I feel lucky that those early connections with nature and animals became a part of my core character and a natural extension of how I parent today.
Our Let’s Go Chipper series was created to help excite and prepare children for experiences in nature; music, mishap, humor and lessons delivered playfully to help foster little ambassadors of the environment. This month we kick off our Chipper Ambassador program to support the Let’s Go Chipper app and our virtual path to the great outdoors. From the US and beyond, individuals are sharing their adventures and tips on how to create meaningful connections between parent and child, and with nature.
We are all born with an intuitive mindset to care and by reinforcing positive experiences in nature we lay the emotional foundation that will help children foster a greater appreciation for the environment – helping make Earth Day an everyday celebration.
Earth Day 2011 will be on Friday, April 22nd.
