It's Spring! Turn Off The Screen!

Now that spring is here, no excuses - time to get the kids outside! This from the "Green Hour" website:

Most adults of a certain age have childhood memories of carefree days spent playing outdoors -- climbing, digging, collecting, building, and exploring the natural world around them, at their own pace, in their own way.

Those children of a generation ago are the parents of today, and you might expect such outdoor play to be part of their families' lifestyle. But today's overscheduled kids are increasingly "plugged in" to electronic devices and media and unplugged from the fundamental and formative experience of nature in their own neighborhood. Their senses -- including, most sadly, their sense of wonder -- are bombarded, overwhelmed, and ultimately diminished.

Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, refers to this nature-child disconnect as "nature deficit disorder." One of the primary symptoms is the replacement of the green space by the screen space as the occupier of children's free time. Indeed, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that the average American child spends 44 hours per week (more than 6 hours a day!) staring at some kind of electronic screen. Studies have linked excessive television viewing to obesity, violence, and even lower intelligence in kids. Now, a growing wave of research indicates that children who spend time outdoors are healthier, overall, than their indoor counterparts.

Children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:

• Play more creatively



• Have lower stress levels



• Have more active imaginations



• Become fitter and leaner



• Develop stronger immune systems



• Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD



• Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment

The National Wildlife Federation recommends that parents give their kids a "Green Hour" every day, a time for unstructured play and interaction with the natural world. This can take place in a garden, a backyard, the park down the street, or any place that provides safe and accessible green spaces where children can learn and play.

In future posts to this page, I will share a bunch of great nature activities, crafts, etc. that I have done with my own kids over the years. The first one is:

Nature Collage

This is a good project to incorporate with a hike, a trip to the park, or even a walk around your backyard. Gather leaves, flowers, feathers, pieces of dried grass, etc. When you get home, arrange the things you found in different ways until you make a picture you like. Paste your picture down on a piece of cardboard or posterboard, piece by piece with little dabs of paste or glue. Parents - have a glue gun ready to help out the kids with items that don't paste easily, like acorns or rocks. If you use bulky items like these, it will be a little tougher to frame, so you might have to fiddle with the frame to make it work. Or leave your artwork unframed. The main point is to get your kids outdoors, and have some fun in the sun!

For more information about the World Wildlife Federation's "Green Hour" campaign, visit http://www.greenhour.org/.

Help Hungry Squirrels!

Here's the Problem (from USA Today)


Squirrels scrounge for acorns across USA

The small or non-existent acorn crops reported in many parts of the USA, though unexpected, reflect a natural cycle, they say, and pose no reason for concern — unless you are a squirrel.

"I've heard from people all over the country with mixed reports on the size of the crop in different areas," said Rod Simmons, a botanist with the city of Alexandria, Va., where acorns have been in short supply this winter. Simmons said it appears oak trees produced small crops or no acorns in many parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. He said he also has heard similar reports from people in parts of California, Kansas, Indiana, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Kentucky.

Read the rest of article at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-01-15-acorns_N.htm

Now, Here's Something

Everyone Can Do To Help!

Even if you live in an area that is not being effected by the acorn shortage, this is a great family project the squirrels will appreciate!

Build This Squirrel Feeder

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Chris an Conor built these twin squirrel feeders in under an hour, using scrap wood from past projects. They each received points toward their progress in the Missouri Conservation Frontiers Program for the project, so they helped themselves as well as the squirrels!

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All you need is:

15" of 2X4 board. Beat up scrap wood is fine - squirrels are not picky about appearances! You'll also need a pencil, a drill, a screwdriver, a bottle of wood glue, 3 3" screws, and a few long nails for mounting. A vice can also be very helpful for pre-drilling your holes.

Instructions:

Cut the 2X4 into two lengths, one 11", the other 4". Butt the 4" piece right up to the 11" piece as shown in the picture. Mark its location with the pencil. Your going to attach the two pieces using the screws and a little wood glue.

Using a drill bit the right size for the width of your 3" screws, drill two holes through the 11" piece inside the rectangle you just traced where the 4" piece will go. The holes should be a couple of inches apart. Then put the 4" piece into a vice, lay the predrilled 11" piece over it, and drill again so that when you put the screws in through the back of the 11" piece they will secure the 4" piece as shown in the picture. Now run a line of wood glue along the edge of the 4" piece, butt the two pieces together, then hand turn your screws until they are tight. The wood glue is not absolutely necessary, but squirrels are well known for being ROUGH on feeders. That little bit of Elmer's will go a long way toward making your feeder darned near indestructable!

Now drill a hole in the center of the 4" piece. The third 3" screw goes here, with the sharp end pointing up. This is where the corncob goes. You don't have to wait for the glue to dry before drilling the hole or putting in the screw, as the two screws already scuring the joint will hold everything together just fine.

We drilled two more holes, both in the 11" piece, one at the top of the feeder and another at the bottom, underneath the 4" piece. We used the long nails through these holes to nail the feeders securly into position, one in a 4X4 post of our wooden privacy fence, and the other to a tree stump (NOTE: Do Not nail feeders into living trees!!! You'' injure them!). Feel free to devise your own means of hanging these feeders, but be sure however you do it, they're rock solid or you're going to find them on the ground every day. Squirrels are frisky, busy and quite strong little mammals - prepare for that!

I forgot to mention, you also need... CORN! You can purchase ears of squirrel corn (also called "critter corn") just about anywhere that sells birdseed. Twist the cob straight down onto the screw sticking up from the 4" piece of wood, and you and your squirrels are good to go!

Here's another picture, for inspiration!