Get out of the house and create memorable moments with your children!

Time outside energizes us and transforms our lives for the better. Quality time outside with our children creates a priceless bond and beautiful memories.

On Earth Day 2010, give your celebration a new twist: renew your commitment to your family’s health and well-being by getting active with your kids outside…and celebrate Earth Day everyday!

On April 22^nd, Rebecca P. Cohen, host of Get Out of the House^TM is teaming up with Timber Ridge Middle School in Plainfield, Illinois. All 1,100 students will participate in the annual ‘Wolf Run’ to promote physical activity outdoors. Students and parents will plant a sweet pea garden and will start celebrating Earth Day with a new twist: creating a stronger connection to family and healthy living.

You can participate in this important campaign at your own school or in your own home.  Depending on the space you have available, you can:

• Plant four pea seeds in a container with a 3-4′ stake (for support as the plants grow)

• Plant the peas around three stakes in the ground to make a tee pee (secured in holes the ground and up top with twine)

• Have each child plant a pea seed in a cup to sprout in class on a sunny windowsill (keep soil consistently moist)

For even more ideas to bond with nature and your family, check out Rebecca’s easy-to-follow activity guides, from the basics of vegetable and flower gardening to 50 outdoor activities for families and portable conversation cards for families.

Learn more about how you can foster stronger connections with your children and create a world of wonderful moments outside, in nature! Seeds of Change has donated 3,500 pea seeds for this event; Home Depot has donated soil; KleenSlate Concepts has donated dry erase paddles for the outdoor lesson.  To find out more about how you can partner with Rebecca Plants for community events, contact us at www.RebeccaPlants.com

Rebecca P. Cohen is the author of the upcoming book, 365 Days Outside: A Mother’s Journey to Improve the Well-being of Her Family and Founder and President of Rebecca Plants LLC, a gardening and outdoor lifestyle company that inspires families to spend more time outside together. Rebecca is also creator and producer of the television series, Get Out of the House, inspiring you to create memorable moments outside every day. Join Rebecca and other parents around the country as they Plant Peas for Earth Day. To learn more, visit http://www.rebeccaplants.com.

Transitions can be tricky. It may not look like spring overall. But then again, if you look closely at the buds on the trees or notice the first tiny bloom, it does.  There is the promise of what is to come.

But what do we do now while we are waiting?

We make the best of the moment.  Like this “Pond skimming” at Whitetail Ski Resort in Pennsylvania.  I saw a sign for it two weekends ago and had no idea what it was.  I’m sorry I missed it. Thanks to video, it looked like a lot of fun, not only for those experiencing it, but also for those watching - young and old.

So you can’t pond skim, what do you do?  The video reminded me that we can replicate the enthusiasm that we see in pond skimming, and put it toward something that you can do no matter where you live.

1) If your temperatures are in the 40s and 50s, plant peas with someone you love and watch them grow.

2) If it’s still bitter cold where you are, enthusiastically enjoy some hot cocoa and s’mores outside while you watch the birds or continue to enjoy the slopes and sledding.  Savor the moment while it lasts. Before long, it will be gone.

3) If you’re in a sunny location experiencing a cold spell, like I was recently, there is something that I’m sure the weather is perfect for that you’ve always wanted to do.  Post my 50 Outdoor Activities list to grab a fun idea at any time.

And if you’re in the Carribean or somewhere it’s summer you better be having tons of fun!

“It’s sad,” both my boys said at different times yesterday while we enjoyed the last day our local ski mountain was open, holding on to the snow that was left but watching as it disappeared quickly in the rain.  With record snow falls in Washington, D.C. in 2010, we made the most of our winter and created some amazing memories outside.

As with any transition, it’s important to be grateful remembering the closing chapter and look forward to the next.  My boys and I shared what we liked best about the winter and how to make the spring even more fun.

Back home, the snow is gone and the yard is bare.  Tiny bulbs are peeking out of the ground.   At night, what once was completely quiet is now full of sounds.  And I will (try my best to) watch with patience as the buds and roots that have been strengthening all winter take their time to unfold, and to remember the experiences that I can influence:

With an hour more of daylight, I’ll remember daily to put on my rainboots to take walks with the kids, plant easy vegetables and perennials together, and ride bikes to start creating even better memories as a family for spring.

P.S.  Don’t forget to take advantage of the Buy One Get One Free discount on all products, which ends March 31st, 2010.  After April 1st, only subscribers will be eligible for discounts.  Subscribe now.

Rebecca P. Cohen is the author of the upcoming book, 365 Days Outside: A Mother’s Journey to Improve the Well-being of Her Family and Founder and President of Rebecca Plants LLC, a gardening and outdoor lifestyle company that inspires families to spend more time outside together. Rebecca is also creator and producer of the television series, Get Out of the House, inspiring you to create memorable moments outside every day and is featured on Rachael Ray’s website:  http://www.yum-o.org/how_cool.php?id=69. To learn more, visit http://www.rebeccaplants.com.

This article of mine was first published last fall by Root & Sprout (http://www.rootandsprout.com).  The topic is still relevant for many of us, and so I wanted to share it with you again. Enjoy!

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Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly weed)

It was the first day of school for my first-grade son.  “I don’t know where I’m going” said a little boy, perhaps in kindergarten.  “Do you know who my teacher is?” said another little girl.  I found teachers to help these students in the sea of children that surrounded me, most knowing where they were going, following one in front of the other on a green line throughout the school.  My son missed the actual first day due to a high fever Labor Day weekend.  I was escorting him to his classroom.

Ten minutes before, I was outside with my son and other children, waiting for the bell to ring.  We bumped into our neighbors and waited together.  “Tell Shelby and Katelyn how many monarch butterfly caterpillars we have found,” encouraging my son to forget about his first-day nervousness.  “Like, 15!” he replied.  The girls asked how we found so many, and I explained we are planting butterfly weed plants (asclepias tuberosa), which the caterpillars like to eat.  We have found caterpillars everyday for the last week, and only brought them into a large butterfly house (lent by a neighbor) to protect them from being jostled while we plant hundreds of mostly-native plants for our new garden.  “We even have a chrysalis!” he said.  One morning, we noticed the caterpillar hanging, shrinking, and turning black at the top of the butterfly house.  We were slightly afraid that our attempts to give the caterpillars fresh butterfly weed three times a day weren’t working.  But, we left the house for a while, and by afternoon the caterpillar was in a smooth green cocoon.  It was amazing.  As we brought more and more caterpillars into the butterfly house each day, I worried how they would react to one another with so many and of varying sizes.  Would I have enough butterfly weed for them to eat?

“Look what I can do!” said Shelby.  She crossed her hands, interlocking her thumbs and waiving her fingers to form a butterfly.  We all started to do it, and as I was starting to say, “You know what is fun, to find your shadow and make butterfly shadows,” I noticed that the sun was to our backs, and my hands formed a perfect flittering butterfly shadow on the ground.  The kids followed suit, and we had a magical memory standing outside the school.

We found my son’s classroom and he quickly kissed me goodbye and turned to enter the classroom.  I knew he was nervous, but I seemed to be the one having a hard time letting go.  “I’ll be walking to get him from school,” I told the teacher, so she would know where to send him when the kids are dismissed for the day.  Walking from the classroom through the school to leave, I was in awe with so many children buzzing with purpose to their classrooms.  In the halls, I remarked to a smiling teacher helping to direct traffic, “It’s like a busy village of children.”

Walking out of the school, I had tears in my eyes, and for some reason my mind went back to the caterpillars, so many and transforming so quickly.  Would they know what to do in a sea of others just like them?  We’re all transforming everyday; some milestones are more obvious than others.  But with our best foot forward, we somehow find our way. Describing the morning at school to my husband when he anxiously asked, “How did things go?,” he had tears in his eyes too.  “It felt like we were the country mice entering the city for the first time; it seemed so overwhelming” I said.  “Although nervous, he seemed to be fine.” 

At the end of the day, my husband and four year-old went with me to pick my new first grader up from school.  After anxiously waiting for him to appear outside of the school and seeing every one of the neighborhood kids leaving, I went into the office to page him after 15 minutes.  But just then, he walked out the front door, having found his way just fine.  When I asked my son on a scale from one to ten – one being the worst and ten being the best day – how his day went, he smiled and said, “a ten.”  I guess I didn’t need to be worried after all.  And the caterpillars are doing just fine too.

Rebecca P. Cohen is a gardening coach and mom who believes that time outside transforms our lives for the better.  For her free guides, 50 Outdoor Activities for Busy Families and Outdoor Classrooms: The Basics, visit http://www.rebeccaplants.com/outdoorliving.asp 

Expensive family vacations were not on the agenda for us this Summer, so when we were asked by some neighbors to camp with them by a nearby lake for the Fourth of July, the adventure sounded like a great idea.  At this time last year, my husband and our two young boys visited Mount Rushmore and Badlands National Park.  But even if we were close to home this year, I still wanted a wonderful family memory of the holiday.

Packing up the car, we had enough to keep us comfortable for one night:  two tents (just in case the five kids wanted their own to sleep together); hot dogs, s’mores, and breakfast snacks; our pillows, sleeping bags, and a favorite stuffed animal for each child; toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toilet paper; a picnic blanket, magnifying glasses, binoculars, flashlights, battery-operated glow sticks for fun (and for safety to keep track of the littlest ones in the dark).

My neighbor, a teacher, brought along a brilliant idea:  clipboards for each of the kids with a pencil for each and print out of a scavenger hunt.  My seven-year-old son and her eight-year-old daughter got a more advanced list of 10 things to find (a pattern in nature, something hanging, animal tracks) and the three, four, and five year-olds got a list that had more pictures:  six pinecones, three birds, one acorn.  The older and younger kids worked in teams and guided themselves through the activity.

Our neighbor’s husband brought along fishing gear and he and his oldest daughter taught my boys how to fish, which they loved, and the rest of the time, the kids explored nearby.  They came across small and big toads and waded in the water, playing with rocks and even found a crayfish.  Not once did they say they were bored or scared, and when the last fireworks died off in the distance around 10:30p.m., after some giggles and talking in the tent, they fell asleep with ease. 

Whether the back yard or nearby park, it’s easy to have a fun adventure close to home.  And the convenience of the location makes it easy for new campers to try it out, especially with some friends, and create memories that will last a lifetime.

Rebecca P. Cohen is Founder and President of Rebecca Plants LLC, a gardening and outdoor lifestyle company that inspires families to be outside and improve their well being.  For a free list of 50 Outdoor Activities for Busy Families, visit http://www.rebeccaplants.com/outdoorliving.asp 

My simple gardening and outdoor inspiration video blogs are now available on my YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/rebeccaplants.  Rate the ones you like best!