Children Need Exposure to Nature

This website gives great advice about how to do it and why it is so important.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/parenting/wp/2014/10/21/10-ways-to-get-your-kids-out-in-nature-and-why-it-matters/

Interesting Moment on the Trail

It's warm; it's dusty. All in all a reasonably good evening to hike. Down the trail I went with puffs of fine clay dust lifting up with each step. Around the bend past the 'waterfall' that is barely a trickle this time of year then up again along the new section of Palisades trail. As I cross the road I see cars parked at the entrance rather than at the trail head and a van with a young man and woman in it getting ready to leave. I am assuming that people are parking here rather than at the trail head because car break-ins are getting all-too-common these days around Spokane. As I cross the road and start up the next section of trail I see someone sitting in the middle of some tall weeds and grass surrounded by something. Well, while he is trying to get himself out of the way I said "You're fine." He had his motorcycle leaning against the bushes and he was sitting there drawing while smoking a cigarette. The young man, partially embarrassed I'm sure, said "I draw better in here." As I passed him I said, "Yeah, I know what you mean. I have my stuff with me as well." It was a rather awkward situation to be sure so I didn't stop to chat. If he was as shy as me about his drawing he might have felt uncomfortable sharing his work with a stranger anyway. I just hope he is careful with those cigarettes... it's a tinder box around here right now.

Tony

The grieving process is a roller coaster for sure. The good memories are what keep us together and move us forward. Today I had to have my nearest and dearest friend Tony put to sleep. He became very sick over the last ten days when his kidneys failed which I have learned is a very common illness in cats; in fact it is the second leading cause of feline death. Tony came into my life on a winter's day just after Christmas. Peter wanted to check the ice conditions for climbing at Indian Canyon about a mile from our house. When Peter, Anali and I got out of our car we could hear some desperate meowing but we had trouble localizing the sound. We quickly realized that it was coming from high up in the Douglas Fir tree that we were standing under. We called to the poor cat who we estimated was 80' up and he began to use the horizontal branches as steps. We eventually got him close enough that I was able to reach up and grab him out of the tree. He meowed enthusiastically and promptly followed us, leaping from one deep, snowy footprint to the next. It was a short walk and we soon headed back to the car with the cat still following us. When I opened the door he hopped right in and has been my cat ever since(I posted fliers over a wide area and made inquiries but no one claimed him).

He was a large muscular cat initially but soon grew fat with the food we provided. He topped the scale at 18 pounds and at that point we tried limiting his food. However, he supplemented his diet with birds (despite four bells on his collar) and our kittens food when we neglected to put it away. He had many nick-names such as Dyno-Kitty, Tony Bologna, Jingle Pig and Tony the Tiger. He was even mistaken once for a raccoon! Most of us have had a pet at one time in our lives that we really deeply connect with; Tony was that animal for me. He would come when I called, jump up to me when I patted my lap and followed me around outside while I worked in the garden or did chores. He was more like a dog in that regard. He also slept with me most nights. He really wasn't afraid of anything which at times got him into trouble but at other times made him really likable. If a new person came into the house, like a plumber or carpet layer, he would rub against his or her leg and make instant friends. He wasn't afraid of the vacuum as long as he was up in a chair. Did I mention his propensity for licking? His tongue was four times as rough as the roughest sandpaper and he really liked to lick. The only way around it was to rub his neck and he would stop trying to get your hand. He immediately made great friends with Jan's kitten, Cloe, and he would lick her as long as she stayed still then she would want to play-fight and Tony would oblige.

My fondest memory of him will always be what he did just a few weeks ago. I was sleeping on my side when I felt a gentle paw on my cheek. He has lying on my side and just reached down to say "I love you" and just left his paw there. It was so cute that I couldn't move. After a couple of minutes he withdrew it but put it back again. No claws or kneading just showing his feelings for me. He had never done that before and it was really touching. It wasn't long after that that he became sick. I only had him for 4 years and he was only about 3-4 years old when we found him.

Today, despite the fact that he could barely walk and was getting sicker and sicker even with the IV fluids, he kept purring when I petted him. His illness was irreversible and his suffering was too much to take any longer. He was still purring as my tears dropped onto his head and while the needle went in...

Nighthawks

Last night I took a late evening stroll up to the 'viewpoint' to ease my aching back. A light drizzle was falling at the tail end of a cold, rainy day. I left my hood off so that I could hear the sounds of the on-coming dusk. My ears soon picked up the 'peent' of a nighthawk. They seem to be more common this year and always remind me of arid evenings in New Mexico. As I neared the top of the knoll I froze beneath a tree branch. I had just noticed a pair of nighthawks flying low and swooping around each other in a frenzied aerobatic dance. I had never seen this behavior before. They are more commonly seen performing their display high in the sky where they dive toward the ground then air-brake with that distinctive 'bbrrrvvvvvt' sound. This behavior kept up for several minutes as the darkness deepened. Their tight flight formation reminded me of jet plane chases through canyons seen in the movies. They actually flew past me at knee height, close enough to hear their wings cutting through the humid air. As their 'peent' calls waned I began to notice a faint different pitched noise to the north and slightly downhill. It was then that I realized I might be close to some young ones on the ground and maybe their display was a warning to me. Or maybe a diversion rather like a Killdeer's broken wing behavior to lure predators away from the 'nest' on the ground. Nighthawks lay their eggs on bare ground and do not build a nest. With this distinct possibility in mind I turned and walked home.

Out There

I decided to go for a hike/jog in the rain/snow through the woods at Indian Canyon. Yeah, I was alone out there...good guess! No bears, no coyote families like I have seen there before nor did I hear any birds. The site of Spokan Chief Garry's last campsite was quiet and serene. He died in 1892 and the site is marked by an aging wooden sign. Actually the trails were not very muddy despite our record rainfall amount for the month of March. So much for April coming in like a lamb! It was still beautiful and the waterfall was the fullest I have ever seen. I hiked up to my car with my hands full of litter and my cheap REI rain-gear full of water.

The Moth & The Crow

Jan and I were in Seattle just before Halloween for conferences. We stayed downtown in a nice hotel and were able to do some exploring whenever we had a free moment or two. We went in a few shops, stopped at a couple pubs and even an art supply store. One afternoon we decided to walk a little north before heading west down the hill to the waterfront. As we stood on a corner waiting for the light to change I noticed a moth flitting about just above us. It proceeded to land on the shoulder of my jacket. Jan tried to brush it off but I stopped her because I wanted to see how long it would stay there. These kinds of moments, especially in a big city, keep me connected to nature. I was strangely comforted. About the same time I noticed a crow that had landed on a street sign not far away. The Corvids are my constant companions and my anchors to Mother Earth. However, I wondered if the appearance of the crow was more than a coincidence. It didn't take long to find out. The light changed and we began to cross the street. The moth lifted off my shoulder and rose in the warm autumn air only to be snatched by the crow just over our heads. The mini nature show was over.

""Parents of infants and toddlers should limit the time their children spend in front of televisions, computers, self-described educational games and even grown-up shows playing in the background, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned on Tuesday. Video screen time provides no educational benefits for children under age 2 and leaves less room for activities that do, like interacting with other people and playing, the group said.

The recommendation, announced at the group’s annual convention in Boston, is less stringent than its first such warning, in 1999, which called on parents of young children to all but ban television watching for children under 2 and to fill out a “media history” for doctor’s office visits. But it also makes clear that there is no such thing as an educational program for such young children, and that leaving the TV on as background noise, as many households do, distracts both children and adults.

” The recommendations are an attempt to be more realistic, given that, between TVs, computers, iPads and smartphones, households may have 10 or more screens.

Still, recent research makes it clear that young children learn a lot more efficiently from real interactions — with people and things — than from situations appearing on video screens. “We know that some learning can take place from media” for school-age children, said Georgene Troseth, a psychologist at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, “but it’s a lot lower, and it takes a lot longer.”

The new report strongly warns parents against putting a TV in a very young child’s room and advises them to be mindful of how much their own use of media is distracting from playtime. In some surveys between 40 and 60 percent of households report having a TV on for much of the day — which distracts both children and adults, research suggests.

“What we know from recent research on language development is that the more language that comes in — from real people — the more language the child understands and produces later on,” said Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University.

“We believe that parents should be actively involved in determining the media diets of their children,” he said. ""

This was taken from an article posted on yahoo today. I personally think children's minds should be stimulated by direct, hands-on activities until at least 3.5 to 4 years old. Anyone who has studied childhood development will realize how supremely important this is for the brain and nervous system of a young child. You stunt normal development if you fill those hours with passive input that the child is unable to process or understand. Limiting the exposure later in childhood is important as well. I wonder if anyone has done a longitudinal study of school performance in teenagers who have a TV in their room compared to those who do not?