Children In Nature

“To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug.” – Helen Keller

A Message From Caden, Outdoor Ed Student

The Connection Between Nature & Children

We believe that nature is a huge component in developing compassionate, responsible, caring young people. The Camp Foley Environmental Education Center is the perfect place for youth to be immersed in nature.

Here, children learn to respect and appreciate the natural world around them.

In the past few years, a lot of research has been done pointing to the fact that children do not spend enough time in nature. Below, you will see how Camp Foley’s Enviro Center is combating these issues.

“Kids are natural little outdoor people. It is we, the adults, who turn them into indoor people. If you don’t get off your computer, why should they.”

– Mark Jenkins, from the foreword of Wild with Child

“Along with milk and vegetables, kids need a steady diet of rocks and worms. Rocks need skipping. Holes need digging. Water needs splashing. Bugs and frogs and slimy stuff need finding.”

– Advertisement for Go RVing

“Passion does not arrive on videotape or on a CD; passion is personal. Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young, it travels along grass stained sleeves to the heart.

If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.”

— Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

“There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.”

– Linda Hogan

“Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.”

– Jimmy Carter

Not too many years ago, a child’s experience was limited by how far he or she could ride a bicycle or by the physical boundaries that parents set…

Today, the real boundaries of a child’s life are set more by the number of available cable channels and videotapes, by the simulated reality of videogames, by the number of megabytes of memory in the home computer.

Now kids can go anywhere, as long as they stay inside the electronic bubble.”

– Richard Louv

“Young people, I want to beg of you always keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you. By so doing you will learn many valuable things every day of your life.”

– George Washington Carver

“Every child needs nature. Not just the ones with parents who appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child.” 

– Richard Louv