This was important enough to interupt my busy day

I was reading a couple of emails while I was sitting on the toilet, (hey, five minutes is five minutes!) and came across this post from Survival Sherpa. Figured this one was important. Grab your kid, your grandkid, hell, grab the neighbors kid!, and go out there.
Too many of our progeny are glued to brain wasting media, and we need to make a difference!

31 Ways to Help Get Your Child Outdoors

1. Catch lighting bugs in early evening. Place them in a vented glass jar and release them at dawn. What makes them light up?
2. Star gaze. Lay out a blanket and stare at the universe around us. Identify as many constellations as possible. Discuss navigation techniques using stars.
3. Revive the art of story telling. It’s a dying art.
4. Puddle stomping. After or during a rain (not lightning) storm, stomp through the mud puddles. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just wrong clothing.
5. Build a fort, shanty, shelter, or tree house. Then camp in your fortress.
6. Trail blaze. Hoof it through the woods or local park. Introduce navigation with a compass and topographical map.
7. Climb a tree – while it’s still legal. Excellent physical training and it’s what kids do!
8. Spot a critter. All mammals, birds, insects, and reptiles are fair game. First one to 10 wins.
9. Night Moves. With a full moon, take a family walk in the dark. Listen to the night sounds. Bring a flashlight for back up. Kids love flashlights!
10. Backyard camping. Set up a backyard tent or tarp shelter over the jungle gym and spend some nights there.
11. Graduate to car or pioneer camping as skills increase.
12. Take a digital hike. No, not on the computer. Document plants, trees, animals, and tracks with a camera for later identification.
    
    

    Look for animals too
13. Sketch and draw wild stuff. Even if you think there’s not an artistic bone in your body. Nature brings out creativity in us all.
14. Discover little things. Roll a dead log over and count the life forms under it. Replace their house gently. Come back in a week to see what’s new.
15. Feral Food Walk. Learn to safely identify, harvest, and prepare wild foods. Wild food resources can be found on our site - Here.
16. Go fish. Use a rod andreel, cane pole, or limb hooks to harvest dinner. The worst day of fishing is better than the best day at school or work!
    
    

    She was caught on a fly rod
17. Feral Food Walk. Learn to safely identify, harvest, and prepare wild foods. Wild food resources can be found on our site - Here.
18. Keep a Wild Journal. Write down questions, observations, and feelings you experience as you re-wild. Go back to the same place in different seasons and record the differences.
19. Fox walk. Maneuver through the woods as quietly as possible… barefoot. You’ll experience more of nature, see more animals, and hear bird songs that are missed when trudging through a forest.
20. Get grounded. Bare feet on the earth is called grounding or earthing and offers many health benefits. Don’t miss out on the fun!
21. Bushcraft. Bushcrafting is simply learning to craft stuff in the bush. While learning these skills, your child’s self-reliance quotient increases. Recommended resources: Wilderness Outfitters, Bushcraft on Fire, One Foot Into The Wild
22. Find a personal wild space. It could be in your backyard, park, or vacant lot in the neighborhood. This is the safe place where you recharge. It should afford some amount of privacy and freedom to discover your wild nature.
23. Nurture wild free play. The less adult supervision the better. Of course, supervision depends upon age, maturity level, skills, and setting. Children learn through play. Recommended resource: Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life
24. Archery. Introduce your child to the world of archery. Take advantage of an increased interest in archery created by the Hunger Games books and movies. 
25. Summer camp. I’ve run many youth camps over the years. Find one with a focus on wilderness skills and nature.
26. Field guides. Acquire field guides for wild and medicinal plants, trees, native animal species, animal tracks,birds, reptiles, etc., etc. Humans tend to value what we can name.
27. School work. The school class learned the most from was 6th grade English. Not because my Aunt Cindy taught it, but because she let us take time to sit under trees to write and draw as a class. We published a book of poetry and drawing which my mom kept after all these years. Great creative memories of connecting with nature came from her English class.
28. Wild Cards. Make your own field guide cards. Start with easily identifiable plants. Sketch/draw a diagram and write a description on the back of the index card.
29. Get Naked. Not literally, kids. Leave all electronic devices behind and pack minimal gear. This strategy is best for teens who have developed basic wilderness skills.
30. Skip Stones. Find smooth stones by water and throw them sidearm across a pond. Count the number of skips on the water’s surface.
31. Race ‘Ships’. Choose a small stick and set sail on a creek or steam in a race to the finish line. Use your bushcraft skills to build a mini log raft and test it in the water.

Up for the challenge of cutting the electronic umbilical cord? Modeling and facilitating is your job. There’s no app for that. However, kids will follow your enthusiasm and their natural, primal curiosity of our ever-changing natural world if given the chance. Get out there. They will follow and get lost in the right direction!