Leave part of the yard rough. Don't manicure everything. Small children in particular love to turn over rocks and find bugs, and give them some space to do that. Take your child fishing. Take your child on hikes.

In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace.

Kids are plugged into some sort of electronic medium 44 hours per week.

Kids and adults pay a price for too much tech, and it's not wholesale.

Environment-based education produces student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develops skills in problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making.

The times I spent with my children in nature are among my most meaningful memories-and I hope theirs.

Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.