Children and Nature

Thanks to art teacher Mary Carol Lynch for inviting me to join her 500 students for a week long artist residency...we had a great time at W. T. Cooke Elementary creating art inspired by our connections to the natural world. The student artists all dove into the projects and within our time together they made some grand colors, forms and lines dance across the surface of the paper.

Nature Nurture...

What a great way to begin the fresh new walk around the Medicine Wheel of Life (i.e. Spring Equinox) than to celebrate kids exploring, discovering and simply playing freely out doors. I recall so clearly my mom responding to any of my whines of 'what is there to do?' by ushering me out into the yard where I could climb a tree to perch with a favorite book, romp with my pup or take a good walk with him in tow to our favorite haunts in nearby John Muir Woods where I would follow racoon and deer footprints along the edge of the creek or just lie on my back watching clouds float by....ahhhhhhh.

April is Children and Nature Month...started in 2006 grab a kid of any age and go outside and wander. http://www.donnaionadrozda.com/CHILDREN_AND_NATURE.html

Go outside and play

It's been a grand day for walking in the woods. Bright and beautiful. Robins gourging holly berries. River path meanders, Hooded Mergansers bobbing, diving. Spanish moss waving gently, Pileated woodpeckers darting, swooping. Sun brilliant off the water. Loblolly aromatherapy.

I'm reading Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. http://books.google.com/books?id=Lo4qAgAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:Richard+inauthor:Louv
a book I'll be recommending to parents whose children spend time with me in studios this semester and beyond.
Author Thomas Berry says, "The simplest, most profound, and helpful of any book I have read on the personal and historical situation of our children, and ourselves, as we move into the twenty-first century."
Take a look.