Nature and nurture combination

Getting children outdoors to play, sadly, now takes an act of Congress.

On Sept. 18, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the No Child Left Inside Act of 2008. Sponsored by John P. Sarbanes, D-Md., the act is designed to expand and improve opportunities for children and adolescents to learn about and experience nature.

The positive news is that back-to-nature initiatives are springing up all over.

In the bucolic Roanoke Valley, Chip and Ashley Donahue started a program in January called Kids in the Valley, Adventuring! (KIVA; www.kidsadventuring.org). It began as a family project, but has spread all over the Roanoke area.

Chip Donahue, a second-grade teacher, had been stuck behind books for three years while completing his master's degree and had little time to take the couple's 8, 6 and 2-year-olds out to play. To atone to the nature gods for the time he was unavailable, he took his children on outdoor adventures such as hiking, fishing, field trips to arboretums and free play in parks. He frequently included neighborhood kids.

"I asked my son, who was 5 at the time, how we could get more kids involved and he said, 'We should just invite everybody, Dad,'" Donahue recalled. So they did.

In December, the Donahues posted fliers in libraries and coffee shops, placed ads in local newspapers and set up a get-together in January that attracted "20 brave souls," he said.

In nine months, KIVA has become a popular monthly outdoor adventuring club with 200-plus families on its Web site's newsletter list. The activities, which are free, have included a Roanoke River cleanup, a kazoo-playing jaunt up Mill Mountain led by Roanoke Mayor David Bowers, picnics, outdoor-game extravaganzas in local parks (Kick the Can, Hill Rollin', Ghost in the Graveyard and more) and a hike up Peaks of Otter in Bedford.

"I've been teaching for 10 years," Donahue said. "I can tell them stories, I can give them examples, but when I give them experiences, that's when things really start to grow in their minds."

Sandra Hofferth, a family-studies professor at the University of Maryland, found a 50 percent decline between 1997 and 2003 in the number of children ages 9 to 12 who spent time playing outside. Her research showed a spike in the time children spent on computers, watching TV and playing video games.

Author Richard Louv called the problem "nature deficit disorder." One of Chip Donahue's inspirations was Louv's best-selling book, "Last Child in the Woods," in which he contends that nature-deprived children are more prone to obesity, depression, attention disorders and other problems.

Two weeks ago in Nebraska the Donahues attended a conference sponsored by the nonprofit Children & Nature Network (www.childrenandnature.org), created to encourage and support people and organizations working to reconnect children with nature.

Chip Donahue said he was amazed by the number of people there from all walks of life and was thrilled by the number of programs taking root around the country.

One session, he noted, was on how to create playgrounds out of natural materials.

Following are some recent back-to-nature initiatives that experts hope will propel kids and parents out into the fresh air: