Book: Last Child in the Woods

I love reading when I get a chance so I think I'll go ahead and post some book reviews every once in awhile.
This is a book I recently read that's moved me to get outside more with the kids.

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv is a good book that got me thinking about nature and education and how important, even vital, hands on, first hand, experience in nature is for children, not from a computer or tv screen. The book gave you a feeling that Americans are losing nature in their lives and that the next generation is growing up with no appreciation or love for nature, no loyalty to it, and so no interest in protecting it. If today's children can't even name the plants and animals around them, they aren't going to grow up to care about protecting them. I dearly want my kids to grow up playing in nature. It's fun, healthy, calming. It's what kids have always done. It reminded me of how fortunate I was to have parents who loved and taught us about nature, taking us hiking, camping and exploring all through growing up. I realized how much I loved following creeks, catching tadpoles, and collecting flowers and rocks and how important those experiences were for me. My favorite memories involve swimming in the river, fishing on my grandmother's dock at the lake, looking at the stars. I want my children to have this too and feel sad that this is largely gone due to the over scheduling, the fear of allowing children to wander off on their own to explore, the permissive use of electronic entertainment, suburban sprawl and fear of litigation. We are disadvantaging our children spiritually, psychologically, intellectually, and physically by bringing them inside, in front of a screen. The point is that children need nature, especially free unstructured play where they can wander, discover and create, and that our society has too much fear of nature and has stopped allowing a lot of free play. Our changing landscape and culture are taking children away from nature. Now that it's becoming more apparent that we really need to become more environmentally aware, children are actually getting further and further away from the natural world. Gone are the days of freely roaming kids who spent their days climbing trees, playing in the creeks or woods, and watching clouds and butterflies, effortlessly forging a deep relationship with nature. The author explores what the latest research is saying about our human need for contact with nature, as well as a variety of consequences that are being noticed as we separate our children from nature. The book talks about the change in how children were relating to nature 40 years ago and how they are today. It explores the effects that technology and too much time inside are having on our children and on the life of the planet. Louv talks about experiential education, which he believes will actually produce more conservationists. People who are taught morality primarily through lecture and guilt aren't really that motivated to care. But people who experience the natural world first-hand are more likely to notice it's decline or absence and have a desire to preserve it. It's so good for kids to play outdoors. The book pointed out that kids who spent time in nature showed marked improvement in concentration, centeredness, etc., even people who had just been exposed to views of trees and growing things. Our children need to get back to free playing in nature. It was a great reminder and motivator to me, as a parent, to just let my children play outside unstructured. It has inspired me to make a regular habit of taking them out in nature on hikes, to the park, and out in the backyard, looking at trees and clouds and bugs, everyday. They really embrace it. Being children, they instinctively LOVE the outdoors, and playing in it. It's getting me up, away from my books and the Internet and lure of the TV. Throughout the book, personal stories weave the sections together. It's a little repetitive and largely anecdotal approach to supporting his argument that playing in nature makes kids better off in a myriad of ways. So, although it's not empirical, it makes some good points that I agree with and has really motivated me to get outside with the kids everyday.