Kids and Nature

I was reading an article the other day about a guy who wrote a book stating that kids don't spend enough time outdoors anymore, that they'd ratber be inside on the computer or playing their game boy.

I saw a card at Target the other day, as well, that made me chuckle but also made me think. A young boy is sitting in the yard, his desk and computer in front of him. He's turned around to address his mom, saying "What? You said to play outside. I'm outside. I'm playing."

How sad is that?

My daughter spends time outside daily (well, I make allowances for blizzard conditions and ice storms). In fact, she can tell you the names of almost every flower and plant in our yard, and has handled - without fear or the "eeeeew" factor - dozens of different kinds of wildlife: toads and frogs, garden snakes, daddy long leg spiders, dragonflies (her personal fave) and once, she found a mole (gosh, was it cute - my husband was horrified I let it go "do you know the kind of damage they do to our lawn?", but what was I supposed to do? Whack it over the head with a shovel?). We even have a "pet" spider who makes her web on our peony bush in the front:



Isn't she gorgeous?

Here's the story my DD wrote about the mole:

A Cute Mole

When we found this mole, he was so cute! But it wasn't me that found it. It was Bailey. She was digging, probably thinking it was a chipmunk. I went to see what she was doing. I picked it up. It was so cute. I went to mommy who was gardening. She went to Bailey and pulled her back. Gram held Bailey while mom went into the woods. She found a good place. I was swinging on my swing. Mom went way back in the woods.

The End

Look... isn't it cute? Could you whack it over the head?



I've been told that my heroine has a strange pet - a rat. But, see how much worse it could be?

Okay, enough messing around. Back to writing.