"Kids in the Woods"

[mauser]

Get kids out into nature!?

The $1.5 million "Kids in the Woods" program is aimed at a growing problem among American school children: a lack of direct experience with nature that experts say can contribute to childhood obesity, diabetes and even attention deficit disorder.

What's next, teach them to hunt & fish?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070522/...s_in_the_woods

[vetter3006]

I could not agree more. I remember when my uncle introduced me to the outdoors and hunting, what a great experience that even today I still love being out in the outdoors and enjoying nature, in fact I appreciate it even more now that I am married with children. I am starting to share this with my children now.

[Emptymag]

I've always said that the world would be a better place if everyone went camping a few times...
Then again, the campground would be much more crowded than I like and I wouldn't be able to enjoy a quiet evening watching the flames dance in the campfire.

It's funny, with all the "global warming" stuff the "environmentalists" shove down our throats, you'd think they'd be all over this kind of thing, FORCING ALL KIDS to get out and see/touch the environment they claim to be fighting for.

[ChamberedRound]

Agreed. When I was a kid, the minute I got home from school I heard the same thing from my mom every day:

"Take off your school clothes, put on your play clothes, and don't come back until dinner"

Same was true on the weekends, except for "take off your school clothes" part

At times I thought it was mean when I was younger. But, it forced me to be outside, to be active, to interact with my surroundings (a rural-turning-suburban environment), and to appreciate nature. Me and the kids in the neighborhood played in everyone's yards, and no one minded. We hunted for ants to pull the legs off of. We played in the woods that bordered our neighborhood, pretending to be explorers. We climbed trees and built forts from leaves and scrap wood. The coolest day of my childhood was when my dad gave me his old Boy Scout poket knife when I was 8. I thought, "now I have a REAL tool to use in the wilderness". I whittled branches away until that blade couldn't cut through butter.

I try very hard to make my children play outside as often as they can, so they can also appreciate nature, and appreciate that they don't ALWAYS need to be occupied. Sometimes, it's good to be bored; it forces the mind to imagine and to think creatively.

We might take a camping trip this summer too, so I can do some nature walks with my son. Can't wait until he's a bit older so I can do all the things my Dad did with me.

[Frenchy]

When I was a kid in northern Quebec, Inside the house was mainly for eating and sleeping, we lived in Montreal during the week, the weekends and summer was at the summer house, mind you, that house had all the convenience of our other home and then some. A regular summer day meant, taking the pellet gun outside and shooting at tin cans, going to see friends some 5 miles away, (some times by row boat, some times on foot) and target shooting along the way. Bikes came along later, we dint know what fancy mountain bikes where yet, I had a huffy, that sucker mush of weighed a good 40 pounds!

Back then, pop and beer bottles where .02 cents, we had our load of tourists who dumped these all over the roadside, so one of our things was to pick up bottles and stash them so we had spare money for ammo. Some times we would really get blessed, some one would dump a few big bottles, they where worth .05 !

Of course, being far north, there was always desert around later in summer, my friends and I would go picking berries and some times even apples on an old farm my older sisters husband’s family owned. That was some 12 miles out, and about 30 minutes of constant uphill peddling.
Other things I remember where helicopter wings, (seeds from a maple tree that come down like a helicopter) and snake tongue. (Vines)
Rock throwing was always easy to do, we would setup a shooting gallery of old tin cans or glass jars in the dump, (every summer home seemed to have a place they dumped the old glass jars) and practice throwing rocks at those. There was boat racing, (no motors involved) canoe tipping, (and obviously learning how to get it emptied and up again. Swimming and rock skipping was always an option.

In winter, there was tobogganing, Ice hokey on the lake, and shoveling of snow to make a rink that usually magically iced its self over night! (little did my friends and I know our fathers would poke a hole nearby and soak the area so we had nice ice all winter.
There was also the cutting down of trees year round, there always seemed to be brush to be cut down, and although I now realize I probably brought home more Twiggs then trees, we did burn them in the fireplace at night when they where dried, we had a pile outside for wood and branches.
To say we where king of the mountain was a sort of underscore, our summer home was built on a mountain side, there where 130 steps to go from road level to the front door. Took a few years before there was a road open adjacent to the house where my brother in law started to clear the roods, until then, I had to lug that old Huffy up them steps! Man I know why they called them Huffy’s!

Rainy days meant toy cars, usually die cast/hot wheels and other cars my friends would have. I remember having plastic rubber like cars to play with, cards and other board games.

I would not trade my youth for any of today’s Nintendo and X-boxes, I had way too much fun back then. Try to imagine, a boring day shooting tin cans till your 1000 pellets are shot out… Then having to go fishing just so you could be on the boat.

[PA Rifleman]

...Rainy days meant toy cars, usually die cast/hot wheels and other cars my friends would have. I remember having plastic rubber like cars to play with, cards and other board games.

I would not trade my youth for any of today’s Nintendo and X-boxes, I had way too much fun back then. Try to imagine, a boring day shooting tin cans till your 1000 pellets are shot out…

You and I could have swapped places in our youth, and it would have taken a while before anyone noticed.

[1911shooter]

My dad got me a sticker for my truck it says "take your kids hunting so you dont have to hunt for your kids" best advise i ever got, and live by it everyday. my kids were running around the woods before they they could walk, crawling through the dirt. we go shooting every sunday and i take them hunting fishing and after school they go G-HOG shooting with me.... they dont even have an X-BOX or Playstation in the house. they cant even tell you what kind of cartoons are on the tv.

[Emptymag]

...they dont even have an X-BOX or Playstation in the house. they cant even tell you what kind of cartoons are on the tv.

Certainly grounds for abuse charges!

[mpi]

i grew up on a farm in northern west virginia, it was my job from a very early age to keep the fields free of pests, ground hogs, crows, etc. this was achieved with a single shot 22, and later with a .30 carbine my dad got for me. i was given the carbine when i was 9, the 22 when i was 6.
\

when i hear my friends talking about introducing their kids to guns at 10 or sometimes 12 or 15 years of age i just shudder.
mpi

[jsb889]

My best friend long ago was hardly allowed inside on nice days. We always had to play outside, and I see now that it was just to get us to enjoy the outdoors when it was nice out. Shes moved long ago, but I had some of the best times of my life with her.

My little nephew (8) is being taught the wonders of the outdoors, he loves to shoot and ride dirtbikes. My brother doesn't take him shooting enough, so I'll have to start making trips out there this summer