Faces and Places:
Get Out! - Outdoors That Is!

 

By guest reporter Stephanie Redman, Executive Director,
Oregon Recreation and Park Association

 

For many generations, summertime for kids meant spending hours and hours outside - splashing at the local swimming hole, building tree forts, playing ball, riding bikes, attending day camps, chasing fireflies, and more. However, as kids' attention is increasingly captivated by apps and screens, that structured and unstructured outdoor time takes a hit.

 

Those "good old days" always seem rosy, but is it actually bad for kids to spend less time out-of-doors and in nature? Many professionals argue "yes." Author and journalist Richard Louv firmly believes that children are harmed when they cannot connect with nature and the great outdoors. He coined the term "nature deficit disorder" in his 2005 book entitled Lost Child in the Woods and uses it to describe a range of potential negative consequences of children's reduced outdoor time and physical contact with nature, including attention disorders, obesity, reduced creativity, and depression.

 

For parents and professionals who are interested in ensuring that children retain (or reestablish) a connection to the outdoors, answers are close at hand. Activities to get kids outside can be as simple as going into the backyard to count bugs, taking a walk in your municipal park, or counting stars in the night sky.  

 

While kids sometime need a little prodding to head outside, the Oregon Recreation and Park Association "Outdoor Seekers" passport program offers a great incentive to get kids into nature. Perfect for families, camps, or childcare programs, Outdoor Seekers lends a fun framework for kids' play in the outdoors.  

 

To find out more about the "Outdoor Seekers" program,and to read the rest of Stephanie's article, click here...   

June was a month of planning and the kick off of our Summer Library, Summer Learning and Summer Lunch project. With funding provided by National Summer Learning Association and the Prince Henry Foundation, fourteen libraries in Salem, Harrisburg, Woodburn, Eugene and Monmouth have been running for a few weeks - opening their doors to readers of all ages!

Studies have shown that access to books during the summer helps combat summer learning loss. Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency and many lose more than two months of reading skills over the summer months.

In addition to library books, students are accessing free books through Bazillion Books for Kids and the Salem-Keizer Education Foundation, read-alouds, crafts and games.

Click here to learn more and to see a list of the libraries and the times they're open this summer!

Display Your Art in Japan!

The Sheridan Japanese School and the Prefectural People's Art and Culture Festival invite Oregon students (ages 15 and younger) to submit paintings to compete for a spot in the 2013 exhibit in Toyama, Japan!

Oregon has a had a long-standing sister-state relationship with Toyama, and this festival will help to share Oregon student's work with students in Japan. This is an exciting opportunity for students to share their creative perspectives with communities of Japan!

Entries must be:

• Paintings (acrylic, water color, ink - anything that is done with a brush!) created by children under 15. 
• Size 15"x21" or 11"x17" (must be rectangular). 
• Include the title of the piece, the artists name, age and gender on the back of the art work. 
• Returned by August 1, 2013. 

Interested in Planting a Garden for your Program - Not Sure Where to Start?

Check out steminthegarden.org. This blog, kept by the folks at the School Garden Project of Lane County gives step by step instructions in a series of six modules.
The order of the modules loosely follows the growing season/school year.
Module 1: Introduction to the Garden and Module 2: Growing the Plants give students an introduction to the garden and plant needs at the beginning of the fall when there is a lot of diversity of crops in the garden.
Module 3: Developing a Locally based Food System involves a lot of harvesting, which works well during the fall harvest season.
Module 4: Making the Soil Rich and Module 5: Designing the Garden, are topics for the winter months when there is little plant life in the garden- a great time to explore all the bare soil and think ahead to the next growing season.
Module 6: Independence and Garden Life are a good topics of focus for the spring when the garden is coming back to to life and students have already gained a basic understanding of plants.

Though you can follow this order, all of these activities can easily be done at any time of the year to fit with your needs.

OCF seeks proposals from
Out-of-School Time Programs!

Questions?  Please contact Belle Cantor; [email protected]; 503.227.6846.

Valuable resources and grant funding
are available to support your work to provide healthy. Start small by applying for a monthly mini-grant to promote healthy eating, or outline a more comprehensive plan and apply for Fuel Up to Play 60 Funds. Oregon Dairy Council Monthly Mini Grants provide funding or equipment to support student nutrition by promoting and increasing accessibility of nutrient-rich dairy foods.

Click here to visit the Oregon Dairy Council website for more information!