The Really Great Outdoors

I can not imagine how dull my childhood would have been if, for three weekends a year, my grandparents hadn't taken me camping along the Juniata river.  Along with tentfulls of extended family, including many wild, wonderful cousins, my days and nights were resplendent in mosquito bites, marshmallows, and those little cheese balls used for fish bait.  To this day, I swear that the cadence of a rolling river is the most lulling sound in the world.  

Sadly, for many kids, the call of the wild gets drowned out by the siren song of air-conditioning and the many blinking screens inside the house.  Which is, of course, all the more reason for you to encourage your child's inner naturalist.  Here are a few ideas.  

Duck Tents by Lynne Berry- Five ducks rough it in the back yard in a watercolorful read-aloud.  I love most: The ducks master marshmallow roasting - "Outside crispy, inside sticky, chewy, gooey, finger-licky."  

Toasting Marshmallows by Kristine O'Connell George - Poems so perfect you can almost smell the woodsmoke on the page.  I love most: The concrete poem, "Eavesdropping," is so simple but so inspiring - a lot like nature.  

The Kids Campfire Book by Jane Drake and Ann Love - Unfortunately out of print (but quite likely available through your library), it offers suggestions for batwatching, ghost stories, and nighttime games.  I love most: It includes sheet music for favorite camp songs, complete with guitar chords.  Perfect for some strummin' around the campfire.  

Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids' Guide by Lynn Brunelle - Perhaps the most exhaustive kids/camping book ever written, this is the ultimate guide for stargazing, campfire building, and cricket counting (chirps, that is).  I love most: A twist on the traditional s'more - a pineapple slice and toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two coconut cookies.

Camp Lisa by Lisa Loeb- Spunky songs, both original and traditional, capture that groovy summer camp feeling.  I love most: The foot-stomping, lung-bursting, heart-thumping "Wake Up Song" is way more eye-opening than the morose, pealing bell that jolted me awake during MY summer camp days.

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv - For those of you who need a bit of research to validate all of that fresh air, this book is essential.  I love most: "Nature presents the young with something so much greater than they are; it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity...Immersion in the natural environment cuts to the chase, exposes the young directly and immediately to the very elements from which humans evolved: earth, water, air, and other living kin, large and small." (p.97)