The Benefits of Funding Nurturing, Nature-Full Schools … Instead of Police
Link to high-resolution pdf file: Funding Nurturing Nature-Full Schools Instead of Police
Tag: Children and Nature
For the Birds…
My grandma was a birder. I caught her enthusiasm for spotting and identifying our flying feathered friends on a trip to Sanibel Island in 1980. She introduced me to Great Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets, Ibis and Roseate Spoonbills. We saw Cormorants and Little Green Herons and Cattle Egrets. These most magnificent wading birds stood poised for us in […]
Biophilia/Biophobia
We humans have a complex relationship with nature. Those of us who work to conserve, restore or design with nature often take for granted humanity’s dependence on and innate love for nature. “Biophilia” was E.O. Wilson’s suggestion that we as humans have an instinctive bond with other living systems. I feel this when I’m in urban […]
Road Trip
My two teenage sons and I started the summer with a road trip. A road trip of the sort that we all both dreaded and looked forward to at the same time. A trip across the entire United States … or at least most of it. Their dad and I had taken our two oldest […]
To The Sea
Twenty-eight feet never looked so small. On our third day in Costa Rica, we went deep sea fishing, me battling my life-long fear of the ocean to spend a day at sea with Jacob and Jasper. The young man who we purchased the tickets from had a shared history on North Carolina’s Outer Banks where […]
Setting Roots
In honor of the five year anniversary of buying my house … Excerpt from Making Home: from the Sticks to LaLa-Land Once the wake of my divorce began smoothing out around me, I felt the need to anchor myself. I wanted to settle down. I wanted a home of my own. It had been five years […]
Rain and Teenagers in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Deluge Part One You’ve probably heard, or been in, the rain this weekend. After months of no rain, we’ve had a deluge in Los Angeles. In a record low rainfall year – the last I heard was 3″ – we got that much in a 48-hour period. For Southern California, that’s a big […]
The Nature of a School Landscape
Think back to your childhood school … what is the first image that pops into your head? I have two distinct memories of elementary school. One is of me swinging next to Katie Coffee on the big metal swing set the day after Jimmy Carter was elected President. The other is of a big maple […]
What is Winter?
Last year I toured several environmentally focused schools to learn how innovative programs are addressing Nature Deficit Disorder: the growing issue of children (and adults) lacking enough access to nature and its restorative qualities. At one of the public elementary schools, remade with native gardens, fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, I sat in on an […]