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Get Out! Take a child outside, and just watch...
Photo Courtesy of Doug Wakeman
Liz Baird, formerly of Winston-Salem, founded Take a Child Outside Week.
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Published: September 26, 2008
When she was a child, Liz Baird couldn't wait to get home from school and climb the towering maple tree in her family's front yard.
She would maneuver her small frame through the tangle of limbs to find a sturdy branch where she might read for hours. And if she tired of that, she would take a ride on her bicycle or walk through a patch of woods and shove interesting things such as acorns or rocks in her pockets.
Life under the big blue sky was fascinating and fun.
Baird, 47, worries that today's children are missing out on such adventures.
"If you ask people who are over 30 about being outside, there's an immediate connection with a special place or a special moment. It is unbelievable the number of people who will tell you the connection they had with the outdoors," she said. "I feel like when you ask the same question of younger kids, they kind of go, ‘Oh, we eat out on the deck.' They don't have that connection with a particular spot."
Off the couch
Baird, the director of school programs at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, has spent much of her adult life trying to rectify that disconnect. Her latest effort is Take a Child Outside Week, which began Sept. 24 and ends Tuesday. As its title suggests, the project's goal is to encourage parents and other caregivers to pledge to pull a child or grandchildren off the couch and into the sunshine.
To help parents, Baird has formed partnerships with parks, museums and zoos all over the country that promote outdoors activities. The state-park system in North Carolina has gotten involved and will offer programs throughout the week.
In our area, Hanging Rock will have children's games that teach about water conservation on Saturday and a class on plaster casting animal tracks on Sunday.
Pilot Mountain will offer short hikes designed with children in mind on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.
"We would like kids to have time outdoors, either in an unstructured setting exploring the natural world or just down the street. The location doesn't matter as much as just letting kids get a chance to be," Baird said.
She started the program last year, unsure how well it would go over.
"I thought if we had 15 partners and reached 50 kids, I would've considered it a success," she said. "Instead, we had 168 partners in 38 states and two countries." She heard back from about 2,000 people who posted what activity they did during the week on the project's Web site.
Many people who live in Forsyth County will not be surprised to learn that Baird is spearheading such a project. A third-generation graduate of Salem College, where her daughter now attends, Baird taught science for many years at Forsyth Country Day and Summit School.
While at those schools, she earned a reputation for her hands-on approach to teaching. She kept animals and plants in her classroom, organized trips to Belize, took students to Reynolda Gardens to collect leaves and taught them how to make paper.
Children at those schools loved Baird for her enthusiasm and creative teaching methods, said Libba Reynolds, who taught with Baird at Summit.
"There was always an emphasis on outdoor education and experiential education. She has been an innovator and pioneer in the whole idea that children learn best by discovery and getting out in the field," Reynolds said. "She's always pushed that."
A few years ago, Baird read Richard Louv's book, Last Child in the Woods, which introduced the idea of nature-deficit disorder. The book and a subsequent meeting with Louv inspired her to start an initiative to get children outdoors. She wasn't sure what approach to take until one evening when she took her dog for a walk. It was a beautiful evening, but not one child was playing outside.
"But I could see the glow of TVs outside of every window," she said. "I thought, ‘Huh? There's a national Turn Off the TV Week. What if there were a national Take a Child Outside Week?'"
Louv became an early backer, which helped build steam. Soon, national publications were writing stories about it.
"If this is not classic Liz, then I don't know what is," Reynolds said.
All sorts of organizations across the country back the project -- conservation groups, 4-H clubs, environmental-education departments at universities.
The Web site for Take a Child Outside Week, www.takeachildoutside.org, includes a list of participating agencies, a list of ideas, and a place for participants to record their adventures.
Foot note: If you are a woman, enjoy bicycling but don't like riding by yourself, you might be interested in Babes in the Woods, a group that was recently formed.
The group meets regularly to ride the Salem Lake greenway and trails. It also has organized group rides to such places as the Virginia Creeper Trail and Tanglewood. In November, the group will meet at Paceline on Country Club Road to learn more about bicycle maintenance.
For more information, visit the group's Web site at http://groups.google.com/group/babesinthewoods or e-mail Christine Silva at Christine.silva@gmail.com.
■ Lisa O'Donnell can be reached at 727-7420 or at lo'donnell@wsjournal.com.
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