Mother Nature's Child - Film Showing

Tuesday, September 27th at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos
Outdoor Community Social at 6:30 pm and documentary film showing at 7 pm

Mother Nature’s Child explores nature’s powerful role in children’s health and development through the experience of toddlers, children in middle childhood and adolescents. The film marks a moment in time when a living generation can still recall childhoods of free play outdoors – this often is not true for most children growing up today. The film asks the questions:

• Why do children need unstructured time outside?
• What is the place of risk-taking in healthy child development?
• How is play a form of learning?
• How can city kids connect with nature?

Local mentor, Jon Young is featured in the film. Author of Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, Jon speaks in the film about the difference between insisting that a child acquire “information” about the natural world and allowing their innate curiosity to guide them. Their own desire to investigate playfully forges a deep connection to nature — and information is automatically part of that process. The result is a child eager and excited to learn more. See the video interview with Jon Young and learn more about the film.

This event is sponsored by The Third Place and the Children in Nature Collaborative. Please RSVP for the local showing of this extraordinary film.

Opening the Door to Nature, Part IV: Prescriptions for Nature
October 15th, 8 am – 2 pm in Saratoga

The Kindergarten Forum welcomes Dr. Nooshin Razani and Dr. Avril Swan who will speak on the importance of outdoor play. The pediatricians review the medical literature supporting outdoor play and nature for children, and the health impacts of sedentary living. They will discuss the issues facing urban children in particular, and some of the efforts to link urban children with nature in the city.  

Nooshin Razani, MD is a mother and a pediatrician working in San Francisco and Oakland.  Dr. Razani also works as Nature and Environmental Health Project Coordinator for the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialties Unit at UCSF.  Avril Swan, MD is a family physician working in private practice and as an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco.  She is a mother of three and believes that all children should have access to free play time and nature.  Nooshin and Avril met during a national conference sponsored by the Bureau of Fish and Wildlife and the National Environmental Education Fund where they were trained as Nature Champions.

The Kindergarten Forum is co-sponsored by the Children in Nature Collaborative. More information and RSVP.

Richard Louv's New Book, The Nature Principle
Richard Louv was in the Bay Area a few weeks ago for the start of his book tour for The Nature Principle, now available in Bay Area book stores. Rich makes the case that we are entering the most creative point in history, that in fact the twenty first century will be the era of human restoration in the natural world. Some of us are determined to finish reading this book by the May 26th forum. The following is an excerpt from the book. 

While the study of the relationship between mental acuity, creativity, and time spent outdoors is still a frontier for science, new data suggests that exposure to the living world can even ehance intelligence. At least two factors are involved: first, oursenses and sensibilities can be improved by spending time in nature; second, the natural environment seems to stimulate our ability to pay attention, think clearly, and be more creative.  

I believe the future can be shaped by what I call the Nature Principle which holds that in an age of environmental, economic, and social transformation, the future will belong to the nature-smart—those individuals, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of nature and balance the virtual with the real.  

The skeptic will say that this prescription is at best problematic, given the rate at which we're destroying nature, and the skeptic is right. This is why the Nature Principle is about conservation but also about restoring ourselves while we restore nature; about bringing back natural habitats where they once existed or creating them where they never were—in our homes, workplaces, cities, and suburbs. It's about the power of living in nature—not with it, but in it.   The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need.

– Richard Louv, The Nature Principle