"It's hard to elicit a sense of wonder from adults," a video game creator was recently quoted as saying in Fast Company magazine. That got me thinking. Do I have a sense of wonderment? What creates wonder in me?
The answer came quickly--the rain forest is where I find wonderment. It's why we moved to Costa Rica, in fact. I wanted to live a life of wonderment and do it with my kids, who happen to find endless wonder in the same place as I.
Several months ago Steve and I were leading a retreat group on an exploration of Arenal Volcano. Our guide spotted an enormous toucan in a treetop, which resulted in 16 pairs of binoculars being plastered to faces, including my own. I've seen dozens of toucans, but I never tire of their magnificence. One woman in the group, however, simply kept walking, impatient to get to wherever she thought we were going. "I've seen a toucan," she muttered, annoyed that everyone was taking the time to admire this creature. Right then I thought to myself: "I hope I NEVER loose the thrill of seeing a toucan in the wild!" While I was incredulous at this woman's indfference to the literal wonders of nature, I also came to understand that one person's wonderment is not another's.
What creates a sense of wonder in you?
Showing posts with label reconnect with nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reconnect with nature. Show all posts
Friday, December 18, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Travel Creates Strong Family Ties
Anyone who has read this blog or my personal account of our Costa Rican escapades at www.gypsyjournalist.com knows that this whole adventure is all about us being together as a family--traveling together, learning together, growing together.
Nature For Kids, a great website, recently interviewed me about the impact of our lifestyle on our family. Here's a link to the article. Check it out!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Today Show Focuses on the Importance of Kids Connecting to Nature
It's not just SNA suggesting that kids get outside! There's a world-wide movement taking place!
The Today Show recently did a peice on Nature Deficit Disorder and getting kids outside. I hope you too are getting more and more inspired each day to send your kids outside to have their own Super Natural Adventures! Encourage them to share their experiences on our site.
The Today Show recently did a peice on Nature Deficit Disorder and getting kids outside. I hope you too are getting more and more inspired each day to send your kids outside to have their own Super Natural Adventures! Encourage them to share their experiences on our site.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Take Back Your Family!
As the school year begins and the flurry of activity that accompanies it kicks in as well, I'm reminded of the origins of our move to Costa Rica.
Four years ago living in suburban USA I saw from observing my neighbors with older kids what was coming down the pike for me: week nights crammed with homework and infernal driving to practices, weekends dictated and decimated by game schedules.
That was enough to motivate me three years ago to grab my family and flee the country. But I'm known for Bold Moves, both literally and figuratively.
Others are taking back their family with equal success without going to such extremes.One family we know moved from the city life to the mountains of Colorado to experience a different pace of life. Another we know takes a month in summer and disappears into the beauty of Hawaii, while another spends long weekends deep in the pristine nature of Montana. I'm struck that for each of these families (including ours), getting into nature is an important component to reclaiming their family life.There's a movement out there in many parts of the US called, "Leave No Child Inside." There are other similar "kids and families back-to-nature" chapters and organizations springing up. If you feel you'd like to start reconnecting with your family AND the natural world, I encourage you to check out one of these organizations (start by clicking on "Links of Interest" on the Super Natural Adventures website).
OR, Send me an e-mail at junglemama@snamail.com and tell me what measures you're taking to reclaim your family time and/or reconnect with nature. I'd like to start sharing inspirational stories with our SNA site visitors.
Four years ago living in suburban USA I saw from observing my neighbors with older kids what was coming down the pike for me: week nights crammed with homework and infernal driving to practices, weekends dictated and decimated by game schedules.
That was enough to motivate me three years ago to grab my family and flee the country. But I'm known for Bold Moves, both literally and figuratively.
Others are taking back their family with equal success without going to such extremes.One family we know moved from the city life to the mountains of Colorado to experience a different pace of life. Another we know takes a month in summer and disappears into the beauty of Hawaii, while another spends long weekends deep in the pristine nature of Montana. I'm struck that for each of these families (including ours), getting into nature is an important component to reclaiming their family life.There's a movement out there in many parts of the US called, "Leave No Child Inside." There are other similar "kids and families back-to-nature" chapters and organizations springing up. If you feel you'd like to start reconnecting with your family AND the natural world, I encourage you to check out one of these organizations (start by clicking on "Links of Interest" on the Super Natural Adventures website).
OR, Send me an e-mail at junglemama@snamail.com and tell me what measures you're taking to reclaim your family time and/or reconnect with nature. I'd like to start sharing inspirational stories with our SNA site visitors.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
School-Age Kids Free to Play Unsupervised?
An article a few months ago in the Los Angeles Times talks about how a woman named Lenore Skenazy of New York City gave her son the freedom to "play" freely and how she set off a maelstrom of criticism for it.
For the LATimes editorial Click here
For the original article by Lenore that set off the firestorm Click here
Heaven knows how I'd be persecuted if people in the States really knew the freedoms we've given our kids since moving here! After our first year in Costa Rica we came back to Milwaukee for the summer and rented an apartment downtown. It was a ball for all of us to be in such an urban environment after so much jungle! But we brought with us our newly-cultivated freedoms.
One day the kids were bored (no jungle to roam!). So, similar to the woman profiled in the article above, Steve and I gave them (ages 8, 9 and 11 at the time) one of our cell phones, $20 and the suggestion of exploring the lakefront park down the street and perhaps visiting the nearby children's museum (which Steve and I were active in helping to found when we lived in Milwaukee and with which our kids were very familiar).
We received our first check-in phone call at the appointed time. "Hi Mom and Dad. We're at the Art Museum." "Really? Why not the children's museum?" "They wouldn't let us in without adults." "But the ART Museum does??" "Yes. We're checking out the exhibit on comics."
Later, we received an update call letting us know that they'd enjoyed the exhibit and were now having lunch on the museum's terrace (they had to split a sandwich because the $20 didn't get them very far!). They bummed around the park area, then came home at the agreed upon time.
Clearly, I'm in the camp of Skenazy, whose website states, "We believe in safe kids. ... We do NOT believe that every time school-age children go outside, they need a security detail." (Check out Skenazy's website, FreeRange Kids which is all about giving kids the freedom to be.)
The author of the LA Times article cites statistics to back up Skenazy: "We parents have sold ourselves a bill of goods when it comes to child safety. Forget the television fear-mongering: Your child stands about the same chance of being struck by lightning as of being the victim of what the Department of Justice calls a 'stereotypical kidnapping.' And unless you live in Baghdad, your child stands a much, much greater chance of being killed in a car accident than of being seriously harmed while wandering unsupervised around your neighborhood."
When someone we know (all info expunged to protect her...and us, from her!) with children of similar ages heard the story of our kids' afternoon excursion, she was dumb-founded and gave us a piece of her mind about how ridiculously irresponsible we were as parents. We actually had felt very pleased with ourselves, seeing that experience as an indicator of how we were raising such independent and responsible kids.
What do you think?
For the LATimes editorial Click here
For the original article by Lenore that set off the firestorm Click here
Heaven knows how I'd be persecuted if people in the States really knew the freedoms we've given our kids since moving here! After our first year in Costa Rica we came back to Milwaukee for the summer and rented an apartment downtown. It was a ball for all of us to be in such an urban environment after so much jungle! But we brought with us our newly-cultivated freedoms.
One day the kids were bored (no jungle to roam!). So, similar to the woman profiled in the article above, Steve and I gave them (ages 8, 9 and 11 at the time) one of our cell phones, $20 and the suggestion of exploring the lakefront park down the street and perhaps visiting the nearby children's museum (which Steve and I were active in helping to found when we lived in Milwaukee and with which our kids were very familiar).
We received our first check-in phone call at the appointed time. "Hi Mom and Dad. We're at the Art Museum." "Really? Why not the children's museum?" "They wouldn't let us in without adults." "But the ART Museum does??" "Yes. We're checking out the exhibit on comics."
Later, we received an update call letting us know that they'd enjoyed the exhibit and were now having lunch on the museum's terrace (they had to split a sandwich because the $20 didn't get them very far!). They bummed around the park area, then came home at the agreed upon time.
Clearly, I'm in the camp of Skenazy, whose website states, "We believe in safe kids. ... We do NOT believe that every time school-age children go outside, they need a security detail." (Check out Skenazy's website, FreeRange Kids which is all about giving kids the freedom to be.)
The author of the LA Times article cites statistics to back up Skenazy: "We parents have sold ourselves a bill of goods when it comes to child safety. Forget the television fear-mongering: Your child stands about the same chance of being struck by lightning as of being the victim of what the Department of Justice calls a 'stereotypical kidnapping.' And unless you live in Baghdad, your child stands a much, much greater chance of being killed in a car accident than of being seriously harmed while wandering unsupervised around your neighborhood."
When someone we know (all info expunged to protect her...and us, from her!) with children of similar ages heard the story of our kids' afternoon excursion, she was dumb-founded and gave us a piece of her mind about how ridiculously irresponsible we were as parents. We actually had felt very pleased with ourselves, seeing that experience as an indicator of how we were raising such independent and responsible kids.
What do you think?
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