Posts filed under ‘No child left inside’
There ought to be a law: Wisconsin Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights
This may seem like a no brainer, but in today’s world of competing interests and childhood obesity we can no longer assume that kids are getting outside.
Come to a public hearing on January 5th from 10 am to 2 pm at the State Capitol to promote the Wisconsin Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.
Meet the bill’s sponsors, Assemblywoman Taylor and Senator Larson; witness the official announcement of the bill; hand deliver children’s artwork and information packets to other legislators; and celebrate with kid-friendly snacks at a Children’s Bill of Rights social. Read the language and co-sponsors here.
Bring your children, students, scout group, afterschool club or church group!
Help demonstrate to legislators just how many children, families, schools, and businesses find this topic critical!
Tentative schedule:
10am – Meet with Representatives Taylor and Larson
10:30am – Official press conference and speakers (children to display artwork)
11:15am – Children and other attendees hand deliver artwork and information packets to other legislators
12pm – Social and treats for attending children
Admission: Free and open to the public – but please register.
Parking fee: Call for information on downtown parking
Location:
State Capitol Building
115 East State Capitol Bldg.
Madison, WI United States 53702
Pacific Loon on Lake Monona
Pacific Loon on Lake Monona.
You never know what you’ll see while biking.
On Monday, bike club went to Monona Terrace Convention Center and spotted two Pacific Loons feeding in the waters near the bike path. The kids thought they were ducks, but the pointy beak and diving behavior suggested otherwise.
I didn’t get the best photo, but that didn’t diminish the experience. Pacific loons do not nest in Wisconsin, so it’s always a thrill to see an uncommon bird.
I’ll try to head back there today to see if they’re still there. For more information go to:
http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird/pacific_loon#
Carrot Juice vs Chips: Bike for Life explores the options
Surprise: Kids like carrot juice.
Carrot juice or chips?
Raw peanut butter anyone?
What do you think kids will eat?
Turns out they’ll eat all three, but not necessarily in that order.
I didn’t think they’d like carrot juice, but they did.
They watched intently as the Willy Street Coop juice bar man turned carrots into juice with the flip of a switch. The rich, orange juice flowed out and the kids eagerly drank it up. They also loved watching peanuts turn into peanut butter in the grinder. They liked that it looked kinda gross coming out of the machine, which always helps with kids.
After they tried the juice and peanut butter, I took out chips and chocolate to talk about portion size and choices in food. They squealed with delight. Sugar, salt and fat make for tough competition. No squeals for carrot juice and unsweetened/unsalted peanut butter, but then again, they had never tried them before. On the other hand, junk food, is readily available and a primary cause of obesity in kids.
Can you just 12 chips?
Of course, the real challenge with junk food is how much kids eat.
Did you know that there are about 12 chips and 250 calories in one serving? Have you ever tried eating just 12 chips in a sitting? That’s the challenge. I offered single serving bags of chips to make the point.
The next time you sit down to eat chips, challenge yourself and your kids to eat just one serving. And, before you eat, read the ingredient label. Turns out that the nacho cheese flavored chips are loaded with preservatives, whereas simple potato chips contain just potatoes, oil and salt. Even in the chip world, there are choices.
As for the chocolate, the package said a serving was half the bar. This seemed like a lot so we talked about that. Can you eat just a few squares of chocolate and put the rest away for another day? I know I can’t, which is why I don’t eat chips or eat sugar. I shared this with the kids so they know that there’s a choice. They don’t get it, but then again, they don’t have to, just yet.
Kids are smart and while most of their food choices are made by others, I believe that this information will make a difference to them.
Perhaps not now, but in the future.
What do you think?
Bike for Life is an obesity prevention program created and run by Diane Schwartz out of the Goodman Community Center. It’s funded by the Endres Foundation and the Rosenlund Family Foundation. The group is enjoying the great fall weather by biking around Madison. Next week, we’ll head up to the Capitol.
Lots of Bubbles at Wisconsin PBS Kids Open House
They came; they made bubbles; they left.
I just went through 12 gallons of bubble juice at Wisconsin Public Television’s Open House at Vilas Hall in Madison, WI.
That’s a lot of bubbles.
That’s a lot of kids.
That’s a lot of fun.
About 1000 kids and parent showed up to make bubbles, see Mr. Steve and enjoy their favorite PBS Kids characters.
If you want me to come to your special event, just send me an email at getkidsoutside@gmail.com.
Bubbles are fun and even the smallest children can enjoy them.
Boys build things and play in the water
I let five boys play in “the pond” during after school on Friday. They got a little wet and dirty and they loved it. Imagine that.
“The pond” is a rain garden sandwiched between our parking lot and a cell phone tower. It’s a little bit of wild in an urban setting. It’s a place where chorus frogs sing, a pair of mallards nest and native plants grow.
It was fun to watch the boys create their own fun in this little spot of nature.
Arden, the thinker of the group, talked to the ducks and wondered what they were saying. Joe and John immediately started building a bridge across the pond with boards that were lying around. The other boys chipped in and added to the structure. They all enjoyed walking on the tipsy structure they built, trying hard not to fall in.
Joe was the ring leader and sloshed through the water – about one foot deep – to complete the bridge. A free spirit, he begged me to let him take his pants off. I smiled and said No! That didn’t keep him from asking again. It was fun to watch Joe plop the boards into place with a splash…with his pants on.
Kids don’t get many opportunities for this kind of play anymore. When I was a kid, we tramped around in the woods all the time. There was more freedom and open space available then and parents weren’t as concerned about their kids. Today, you can’t just go out and build a fort in the local woods anymore without getting into trouble.
That’s why it’s important to let kids play in unstructured environments as much as possible. They need permission to do this whenever and wherever possible. As summer approaches, I’ll be thinking of ways to build in time for unstructured play.
What are you doing to offer kids time to create in the outdoors.
You can find Diane Schwartz sloshing around with kids at the Goodman Community Center. Her next trip is April 16th to the UW-Arboretum where the kids will be picking garlic mustard and having a picnic. Thanks for reading. Be sure to “like it” and share it with your friends.
No recess equals wild and crazy kids
I dare anyone to say that kids don’t need recess to learn. There is no better way to prove this than an old-fashioned rainy day.
Today was such a day.
By 3:00 pm (when we pick up kids from school for afterschool), they were jumping out of their skin. The noise level on the bus was loud and a few kids were standing up on their seats and acting crazy. I addressed the noise and behavior by using the “clap once if you can hear me” strategy. When I had their attention, I acknowledged their day and the lack of outside time.
Think about it. They had been in school for 7 hours without recess. When they got on the bus, all that energy exploded. It had to.
When we got to the Center, the noise and activity continued and it took
a while for the kids to calm down. Snack helped.
Meanwhile, the rain kept coming down with no sign of stopping.
We made it through the day, but hopefully, the sun will come out tomorrow.
The kids need their outside time and so do the teachers.
Pent up energy causes behavior problems and shorter attention spans.
Rainy days can be fun sometimes, but let’s hear it for recess.
Share your stories about recess and why it’s important. Have you ever had an outside recess on a rainy day?
Diane Schwartz is an Outdoor Education Teacher at Goodman Community Center in Madison. Today, she subbed in the after school and stayed inside with 19 K-1 students. Subscribe to this blog now and receive a free 11-page bubble activity guide. Thanks for reading.
Why kids don’t walk and what we can do about it
I hated walking as a kid and would beg my mom to drive me places.
“You can walk,” she’d say and then explain how when SHE was a girl she had to WALK 100 miles just to get to the bus stop…”
Okay, I exaggerate a little, but I truly hated walking. Other kids got rides. Why do I have to walk?
Now, I’m grateful.
Truth is, kids don’t walk unless they have to and it seems like kids walk less and less with each generation. There are several reasons for this:
1) Kids live further away from school.
2) Residential neighborhoods are isolated from grocery stores and services.
3) Madison streets are busier than the streets I grew up on.
4) We love our cars.
5) Parents are afraid their kids will get abducted, lost, or hurt. This is the most troubling trend and probably the most restricting.
For the most part, Madison remains a safe place for kids. However, while many of our families live close enough to the center to walk, very few do. For many it’s a necessity to drive, but for some it isn’t. What’s especially troubling is when parents cancel their kids participation in outdoor activities because they cannot pick their kids up.
To address this I ask? Why not let older kids walk or take the bus home?
What a gift it would be for these kids to get home on their own.
Therefore, I’m going to start making this outrageous suggestion. This will likely raise other issues. For example, will kids need to be taught how to walk on their own? Probably. At the very least it will get parents and kids thinking about alternatives.
Will kids protest? Absolutely. But I can’t wait to respond with my own “When I was a kid I walked 100 miles story.”
Do you have any stories about walking with kids? How do you motivate kids to walk? Do you let them walk to the store, to school or elsewhere?
You can find Diane working on a grant proposal to start a biking program at the Goodman Community Center. You can also find her slopping through the mud at Schumacher Farm County Park looking for signs of spring. As always, register for this blog now and receive an 11-page Bubble Activity Guide.
Two Cool Things: Nature Hike made Easy
Looking for an easy Nature Hike?
Just ask the kids to find two cool things.
I did this with a small group of Kindergarten and First Graders and
was amazed by the results.
Joe immediately found a crack on the ground.
“Maybe there’s magma down there,” he said enthusiastically.
He then started to dig in the crack with a stick. He got excited when he
dug up a rock. Another child joined him. I watched as they poked around
in the dirt, digging up rocks and talking about them.
“This one’s sandstone,” John said.
They dug away at a large rock for about 20 minutes, trying to get it out of the
ground. They dug around it and they kicked it. They eventually got it out (with a little help).
Joe took it back to the classroom and showed his friends. He was proud of his efforts.
Nearby, Lily was collecting leaves… her cool things. She spent her time playing in the sand. I watched as she used a stick to make patterns in the sand. She also covered the leaves with sand and then let the sand roll off.
This kind of exploratory play is so important for kids. It teaches them to play with the simplest of things… cool things… and to entertain themselves. All they need is a stick, some dirt, some leaves, and a little imagination.
Try this out sometime and let me know how it goes.
Diane Schwartz is an Outdoor Education Teacher at Goodman Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin. She is also the Site Coordinator at Schumacher Farm County Park in Waunakee. Register for this blog now and receive your free 11-page Bubble Activity Guide. Thank you!
Damp Day Delight: Stone tools and why I hate to cancel trips
I hate to cancel hikes just because it’s raining.
So, on Saturday, November 12, we left for our hike to Blue Mound State Park despite a wet forecast.
As predicted, it poured on our way there. But by the time we got there, the rain stopped. Perfect.
Temps were in the 50s and it was foggy.
The trees looked like ghosts and mist hung in the air. Little Donny thought it looked spooky.
“Maybe there are ghosts here,” he said.
Maybe indeed.
We walked to the west tower and climbed to the top. Even though we couldn’t see anything, it was still beautiful and surreal. I told the kids that we were in a cloud. I don’t think that got it, but they thought about it. After that, we hiked the Indian Marker Tree trail.
The trail was wet, so we hiked slowly, but that was okay. There was plenty to see.
Blue Mound is capped with chert, commonly called flint rock. Huge chert boulders lined this trail. The wet, glistening rocks were covered with blue lichen, green most and acorn shells left by hungry squirrels. The kids asked a lot of questions.
What’s that blue stuff?
What kind of rock is that?
I could see their minds turning when they learned that Native People used chert to make spear points and tools. The kids held the rock and noticed how it split into sharp pieces.
“This was a tool?” John said.
It’s exciting to see kids connect with the past in a real way. Text book photos of stone tools will now be real for them because they held the real thing. It got real quiet for a few second while they pondered these rocks.
We walked a bit more, but it didn’t take long for the kids to start asking about when the hike would be done. They were hungry and starting to get cold. It wasn’t raining, but it was damp.
After eating, the rain started up again, so we packed up and left.
I’m glad I didn’t cancel this trip. My policy remains, I don’t cancel trips unless there’s a safety concern. Usually, trips turn out for the best and kids learn that foggy, wet days are fun.
Tell me about a trip that was less than ideal that turned out great…or not so great. I’d love to hear from you.
Diane Schwartz take kids on hikes at the Goodman Community Center in Madison, WI. Get you free Bubble Activity Guide now by registering for this blog. Thank you!
Haunted Hayride: The Joy of Fright
Kids love a good scare, especially a fun scare.
We all got our screams out on Saturday night when 30 kids – yes 30 kids — and lots of adults from Goodman Community Center went to the Haunted Hayride at MacKenzie Environmental Center in Poynette.
The kids were very excited and the night was perfect-mild and dry. After breaking up the kids into small groups, we were ready to get on the wagon. In the distance, we could hear screams. That helped put the kids in the spirit.
“Good luck,” said the witch who helped us board the wagon. “Hope to see you soon,” she cackled.
We got our first scare when a chain saw wielding man jumped out. SCREAMS! Then, a group of zombies surprised us. SCREAMSSSSS! Every 50 feet or so, a monster or a group of monsters lunged toward the wagon. This went on for about 20 minutes. Nobody touched us, but it was creepy when a cannibal banged a leg on the side of the wagon and kept running after us. MORE SCREAMSSSSS!!!
“This is freaky,” said John, totally unfazed by the scares.
When we got done, I felt great. Screaming was fun. The kids loved it and I loved it too.
Five-year-old Fedora shouted,
“This was the best day of my life!”
That’s some high praise.
After the ride, we all enjoyed s’mores and hot chocolate around a fire. The kids then ran around and played monster games until it was time to leave.
Next time, I would change very little. Mostly, I would streamline the registration process for the trip. With 30 kids and 10 parents going, registration is time-consuming. Ideally, I would require all permissions slips to be in before the event. I would also let my co-leader know more about the registration process sooner so that he could help with last-minute details. Since we have another large trip coming up in January to Eagle Watching Days in Sauk City, we can test these changes then.
What are your tips for large group planning?
What did you do with kids on Halloween?
You can find Diane Schwartz planning trips for kids at Goodman Community Center in Madison, Wisconsin and at Schumacher Farm County Park in Waunakee. For more information on MacKenzie Environmental Education Center go to www.mackenziecenter.com. To receive a free 11-page Bubble Activity Guide, just subscribe to my blog on the home page. Thank you for visiting and be sure to share this blog with others.
