This seems clear enough: When truly present in nature, we do use all our senses at the same time, which is the optimum state of learning.

It takes time--loose, unstructured dreamtime-- to experience nature in a meaningful way. Unless parents are vigilant, such time becomes a scarce resource, not because we intend it to shrink, but because time is consumed by multiple, invisible forces; because our culture currently places so little value on natural play.

What if a tree fell in the forest and no one knew it's biological name? Did it exist?

Now, more than ever, we need nature as a balancing agent.

Prize the natural spaces and shorelines most of all, because once they're gone, with rare exceptions they're gone forever. In our bones we need the natural curves of hills, the scent of chapparal, the whisper of pines, the possibility of wildness. We require these patches of nature for our mental health and our spiritual resilience.

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

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.