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The Nature Kids Institute

The founder of Nature Kids Institute (NKI), Kenny Ballentine, adds to the growing voice of nature-based organizations whose raison d’etre is to strengthen children’s familiarity and bond with the environment.  Through his organization, the Nature Kids Institute, his simple message is — help children develop a relationship with nature by promoting the idea that children should spend more time in natural areas.

The premise behind NKI’s message is that people care more about those persons, places, or things with whom they have relationships.  And what better time to develop a relationship than in childhood!  Adults, as decision makers and guides, are called upon as pivotal agents in growing the relationship between kids and nature.  Thus, NKI’s tools are intended to help adults introduce and maintain nature in children’s lives. Continue Reading →

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Losing Contact With Nature

One woman’s opinion, by Amy Lenzo
First published on the ICE blog

MonbiotArticleOn reading an article by George Monbiot in the UK Guardian called If Children Lose Contact With Nature They Won’t Fight For It … I agree wholeheartedly with Monbiot’s title, but my hackles rise at the (to me) lazy & inaccurate argument that follows, “blaming” the entire problem at the door of on-screen-engagement.

The truth is that while large-scale social conditions have indeed changed our children’s freedoms and access to the natural world (there’s a lot more happening here than the rise of the internet, folks), I believe that those little screens also hold some part of the way back for many of us (and our children).

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