Children and Nature

Last year I read Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods, which refers to the nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder". For too many children the "green space" of the outdoors has been replaced by the "screen space" of TVs, video games, computers and cell phones.


I recently ran across this website, Green Hour, by the National Wildlife Federation. They recommend that parents give their children a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. The website gives parents information and inspiration to get their children and themselves outside.

I thought this quote was poignant:

"Today's children have no idea what goes on in the natural world around them. They are the first generation to be effectively cut off from nature."

We need to encourage our church families with young children to take advantage of this information.