{"id":878,"date":"2016-03-14T10:46:44","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/?p=878"},"modified":"2016-03-14T10:46:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-14T17:46:44","slug":"the-nature-kids-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/the-nature-kids-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nature Kids Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"

The founder of Nature Kids Institute (NKI), Kenny Ballentine, adds to the growing voice of nature-based organizations whose raison d\u2019etre<\/em> is to strengthen children\u2019s familiarity and bond with the environment.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

The premise behind NKI\u2019s message is that people care more about those persons, places, or things with whom they have relationships.\u00a0 And what better time to develop a relationship than in childhood!\u00a0 Adults, as decision makers and guides, are called upon as pivotal agents in growing the relationship between kids and nature.\u00a0 Thus, NKI\u2019s tools are intended to help adults introduce and maintain nature in children\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

Nature Kids Institute developed resources for parents, teachers, and other interested adults.\u00a0 These resources are free, very easy to use, and with all the important concepts beautifully depicted on one sheet.\u00a0 One example is the Nature Connection Pyramid.<\/p>\n

\"NKI<\/a><\/p>\n

This sheet efficiently displays the recommended minimum intervals of time to be spent by children in different types of natural areas.\u00a0 The beauty of these recommendations is their consideration for the urban realities of the current modern world, making this sheet pragmatic even for those who live in nature-limited places.<\/p>\n

Other equally practical and downloadable sheets accompany an online course that NKI put on their website:\u00a0 www.naturekidsinstitute.org<\/a>\u00a0 Like NKI\u2019s other resources, the online course is offered for free.\u00a0 Leaving these resources open to everybody underlines the founder\u2019s commitment to a better and more sustainable world.<\/p>\n

(Gatherings would like to thank Linda Buzzell for sending the link to the Nature Connection Pyramid through its mailing list)<\/em><\/p>\n

written by Mary A. Hernandez<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder of Nature Kids Institute (NKI), Kenny Ballentine, adds to the growing voice of nature-based organizations whose …Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[248,180],"tags":[318,319,321,320,322],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ecotherapy-2","category-tools","tag-children","tag-kids","tag-natural-areas","tag-relationship-with-nature","tag-urban-ecotherapy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/nkitree.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4azYr-ea","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}