Newtown Resident’s Blog Promotes The Child-Nature Connection

By Nancy K. Crevier

Jodi Valenta’s love affair with the environment goes back to her childhood in New Jersey when her father, “who was ‘green’ before ‘green’ was the in thing,” had her handing out recycling bins in the neighborhood. Today that love has developed into something that benefits her children as well as countless others.

“My mother was a master gardener, so I remember gardening with her when I was little. When we moved from New Jersey and rented a place on the water in Old Lyme, I was in heaven. I would come home from school and run right out to the tidal pools to play around,” she said.

Attending Syracuse University, Ms Valenta still knew she wanted to be involved in the environment. She majored in political science, thinking she would become an environmental lawyer, and minored in environmental studies.

“I was drawn to the human connection in ecology,” said Ms Valenta. “I wanted to teach others about wildlife and raise the profile of nature and how people can be involved in it,” she said.

She graduated from the University of Florida in 1997 with a master’s degree in wildlife ecology and conservation, and her career has focused on the marketing and communications end of the ecology field. A resident of Newtown, she operates her own business now, Mile Creek Communications, specializing in consulting for wildlife and natural resource agencies and other environmental organizations.

But this May, the mother of two decided she needed a creative outlet. Combining her writing skills and her ecology background, as well as the realization that she and husband Jason Valenta had come to that today’s children spend far too much time indoors, she launched her blog, Kids Discover Nature.

“I was very influenced by a book that I read, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, about the disconnection of children and nature,” said Ms Valenta. In speaking with other parents, she found that, in general, parents agree that children should spend more time outside, but find it difficult to make a commitment within the busy days to do so on a regular basis. Two-parent households that create a time crunch in families and organized sports that require preparation and chauffeuring can deplete the amount of time that families devote to free play, said Ms Valenta.

“Kids are outside with some of the organized sports, but it’s not the same as just playing outside. I’m an advocate of free play,” said Ms Valenta, whose children are 5 and 2 years old. “I try to get them outside every day. It doesn’t even have to be more than a half hour every day, but I find that pretty soon that half hour turns into an hour.”

Families unaccustomed to spending blocks of time outdoors together can be stumped as to how to spend that time, she realized, and she felt that a blog could help break down some of those barriers, and inspire families to enjoy nature.

Kids Discover Nature is part journal, utilizing the Valenta family’s own experiences to provide advice, and part resource material to provide guidance.

“Because of my career, I’m very aware of what’s available,” said Ms Valenta, “so I like to provide what I can as a resource. My goal is to have this blog be a community, where everybody learns from each other. As a mom, I know that other parents often have really good tips that I appreciate when I come across them.”

Her blog for July focused on hiking with children, offering tips to make the experience pleasant for everyone. As with her previous blogs, Ms Valenta included plenty of links to websites she feels promote positive outdoor experiences and fun outdoor activities for families.

In May, the blog relayed the fun of fishing and how to plan a fishing trip with novice anglers, how to relish the free days of summer vacation, touched on video game addiction and the No Child Left Inside legislation, and introduced the inch worm. Introducing wildlife, from the tiniest to the enormous, is something she hopes to do on a semiregular basis.

Safe drinking water, making a worm farm, and mud pies were subjects during the month of June, as well as promoting the Kids Discover Nature 30-Day Outdoor Challenge.

 In addition to updating her own blog twice a week, she hosted Carnival of the Green on her blog in July. Carnival of the Green is a weekly traveling blog for those devoted to a “green” community, and conceived by Treehuggers.com, her sister’s website, proving that the back to nature effort is a family thing.

Getting Noticed

Ms Valenta was also profiled at the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green website on July 9, as a featured “Change Maker.” That interview generated a great number of comments on her Facebook page, said Ms Valenta, that she found very inspiring.

“I really didn’t expect Planet Green to put me in as a ‘Change Maker,’ where other profiles have included the founder of the Seventh Generation products, and other people who inspire me. I thought, ‘This is really cool.’”

Her adventures with her own children have shown Ms Valenta the benefits of outdoor play, she said. “The kids get exercise, they exercise their imaginations, they seem to feel a sense of awe and joy, and they have learned to appreciate and have respect for nature,” she said. Because younger children do require supervision, putting them into the great outdoors means that the parent also reaps the benefits of being outside and bonding with children in a relaxed setting. “Everyone feels better,” she said.

Being outdoors does not mean a road trip, either, she emphasized. Children can help with simple gardening chores, and even if the planting evolves into playing in the mud, that is not a bad thing. Wandering around the yard provides plenty of opportunities for exploration.

“Birds and bugs are everywhere. Bugs are especially good, because kids can get right down there and look at them,” she suggested. A magnifying glass for the slightly older toddler is a fun addition to outdoor exploration.

“Blow the fluff off of dandelions, look at the clouds and imagine what they look like,” suggested Ms Valenta, whose children have become enamored recently with ants and bats. If inclement weather truly prevents them from getting outdoors, they can investigate their passions through informative books and pictures.

When kids and parents are too tired to go on a longer trek, go on a picnic close to home, put out some lawn chairs and watch the stars, or set up a backyard campsite.

“Keep it low key and it can be very relaxing,” said Ms Valenta.

“I know I’m not the only one trying to get kids back to nature. It’s a nationwide effort to do so, and the responses to my blog tell me that the awareness has been elevated. Parents are forcing kids out the door and away from computers and television,” she said.

Her hope is to increase her readership of Kids Discover Nature, and thus pass on her enthusiasm for involving children with nature. “I just feel so strongly about getting children outside,” she said.

Ms Valenta provides several convenient options for accessing her blog, KidsDiscoverNature.com. A free subscription delivers the blog to any e-mail address, and readers can tweet Kids Discover Nature, become fans of her Facebook site, or make Kids Discover Nature part of their RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.

“I’m still learning what my readers want to know about,” Ms Valenta said, adding that she hopes parents will put some of the tips into action and pass on a love of nature to their children. “Children follow their parents’ example,” she said.