I grew up in northern Indiana before we felt the need for an air conditioner. The only phones were connected by wire to a phone jack on the wall. The earliest phone I remember was a wooden box attached to the wall. We turned a crank to get the operator and told her who we wanted to talk to. Then she connected us to their line.
The only mail we got was delivered to our mailbox every day. Email was unheard of. In my earliest years, there was no TV, only a radio. I remember sitting on it so we could hear it with less static.
Before anyone finds a reason to think of me as deprived, I insist that the exact opposite is true. I had the privilege of finding newborn kittens in the barn, hunting morel mushrooms in the woods, floating in an animal watering trough in a swamp in the middle of a field, sitting in an apple tree and discovering a stick that turned into an inchworm. I found another stick that was really a spider. I could go on and on.
Kids have no idea about what they are missing because their imaginations have been taken captive by comfort and technology. It’s time to reclaim the blessings of getting outdoors and enjoying nature.
I wrote the book, Outside ABCs, with the hope of generating some interest in getting our children outside and learning to recognize many exciting things that live and grow around us. I plan to write about more ideas to inspire children to go outside and enjoy nature.
These articles will reflect experiences from my own past including ways we entertained children when I was a camp counselor.
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#OutsideABCs #NatureAlphabetBook #getoutside
