Kids are absolutely starved for positive adult contact.

Mothers tend to be more direct. Fathers talk to other fathers about their kids more metaphorically. It's a different way of communication.

Nature-the sublime, the harsh, and the beautiful-offers something that the street or gated community or computer game cannot. Nature presents the young with something so much greater than they are; it offers an environment where they can easily contemplate infinity and eternity.

Use all of your senses.

We tend to block off many of our senses when we're staring at a screen. Nature time can literally bring us to our senses.

Children need nature for the healthy development of their senses, and therefore, for learning and creativity.

In medieval times, if someone displayed the symptoms we now identify as boredom, that person was thought to be committing something called acedia, a 'dangerous form of spiritual alienation' -- a devaluing of the world and its creator.