Comments on: Last Child in the Woods: Raising Backyard Naturalists

By: hippie4ever

hippie4ever — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 05:50:37 +0000

I haven’t read the book, but I remember many days as a young ‘naturalist’. Nature was and is fascinating and doesn’t take much encouragement to explore from Mom and Dad. I do think the fear of strangers does curtail the release of children into the wild. I can’t imagine letting my son (who is only 2.5 right now) roam the woods like my parents allowed my brothers and me. Human predators are much scarier than animals any day! But we have several magnifying glasses, bug jars, books on native species (of our state) and I’m trying to find native flora and fauna books. We collect leaves and rocks and the ladybugs who are now migrating inside from the farmer’s fields (non-native biting ladybugs)are creating much interest during playdates

By: Berty

Berty — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:21:39 +0000

I would like to add that I have discovered that kids are blasted daily with media's inflated sensationalism; "Deadly Predators" "Killer Snakes" "Man-Eaters" "Shark Attack!". It seems that programming on so called nature channels are named and developed to capture ratings and not deliver an important message about the need for and understanding of all animals on the planet. I am always trying to undo this misconception with my high school biology students! They think that all predators or animals with venom should be killed off. And most surprisingly – that they are NOT animals themselves.
+1

By: Endangered Species Day: What You Can Do | simple.green.organic.happy.

Endangered Species Day: What You Can Do | simple.green.organic.happy. — Fri, 20 May 2011 18:14:31 +0000

[...] So they know what they could be missing. Help them to learn the names of the trees, to recognize the calls of the birds, to notice the abundance of life that goes on all around us. Become backyard naturalists. [...]