HugThePlanet now linked to Children and Nature

Dear friends, HugThePlanet is now connected to Children and Nature website - the brainchild of the fertile mind of Richard Louv and friends. It does what it says and connects children to nature. So here's looking forward to a long and happy relationship with them. http://childrenandnature.ning.com/

Free Nature Report Card

Download this free nature report card and make a note of the images your child takes when you go exploring together. It should make it easier for you to upload onto the Facebook and Flickr sites too. To do this click on the image, it will open enlarged in a new window. Then right click and save as image to your worktop, or folder. Then print. Make as many copies as you like, but remember it is my copyright.

Dedicated email address

A new email address specifically for HugThePlanet has now been set up at hugtheplanetnow@gmail.com

Give the kids some positive activities this summer

Earlier this year HugThePlanet was launched - websites for children to upload their images taken, while involved in nature, together with their emotive responses.

The project initiated in Frome, Somerset is destined for global distribution and began with letters, emails and presentation kits to 60 schools in the Frome/ Bath area, as well as that region’s media. Some national media was also alerted.

Concurrent with the launch, web pages were created on Facebook and Flickr. Response soon came from the UK, USA, Costa Rica and Portugal, with free reward badges mailed each month to the senders of the best images.

Since then there has been encouraging response from web-dedicated forest schools, EcopsychologyUK and Children and Nature - established by the American Ecopsychologist Richard Louv.

In September an evening’s talk is planned in Frome which will cover areas such as Ecopsychology, forest schools, gardening and HugThePlanet. A book is also planned for 2013 which will publish the top 100 images with text based on the Frome evening’s talks. Richard Louv, author of the bestselling ‘Last Child in the Woods’ and ‘The Nature Principle’ which deal specifically with the nature deficient syndrome has expressed an interest in writing the foreword to the book. There are plans for franchising the concept and producing merchandise.

But to take the efforts to the next level sponsorship is being sought.

Now the UK, school summer holidays have begun, it is the ideal time for parents, forest school practitioners, activity organisers AND KIDS to refocus their love for nature at the same time as being a valid, involving activity. Uploading images and emotive comments to HugThePlanet is one way of showing love and connection with nature, while interacting with a global, like-minded community of kids and parents.

Mel Sewell

20-07-12

　

HUG THE PLANET at

www.facebook.com/HugThePlanet and at www.flickr.com/groups/hugtheplanet/

E:
mel_sewell@yahoo.co.uk

HugThePlanet now connected to Children and Nature

Dear Friends: HugThePlanet is now connected to Children and Nature at http://childrenandnature.ning.com/
A fantastic site that does what it says and connects parents and children in activities in nature. I hope we will have much more connection with this site created by the fertile mind of Richard Louv and friends.

Why do nothing, when you can do something?

　

The Gaia theory states that the planet is a living, thinking, reacting organism. And if recent events caused by the polution of the environment affecting the climate is anything to go by, we can no longer be in any doubt.

What do we know about the landscape that surrounds us, as a tiny segment of the marvel known as Earth.

Many of us go about our daily business without a second thought to our surroundings and in cities any evidence of nature is often hidden, or ignored as we go about the frenetic world of business - survival in the modern world.

What happens when you go shopping?

What happens when you walk the dog?

Perhaps you are so preoccupied with the latest brands, the cost of living, paying your mortgage and the world’s tragic events that you simply don’t see, hear, or smell what is going on around you. In fact there’s growing evidence to suggest that the reason why we are all so stressed, often to the point of illness is that we are DISCONNECTED.

Don’t forget we are not a stand alone entity. We exist as part of the world around us. We are the world around us and if we ignore, or mistreat it, we are ignoring, or mistreating ourselves as well.

So isn’t it time you took stock and made yourself and the planet feel better? Yes if you feel better, then the planet does too!!!!!

There are some very simple exercises that you can do to re-connect:

1. Go outside the house, look at the sky, feel the climate, smell the air.

2. Buy yourself some houseplants, feed them, nurture them, observe them.

3. If you have a garden, or there is a common, or green patch nearby, go there, look at the plants, study the insects, listen to the birds.

4. Join a horticultural, forestry, gardening, or country walking organisation.

5. Nominate your favourite animal, vegetable, flower or tree. Make a study, get to know it.

6. Befriend a dog, or a cat if you don’t own one.

7. Read a newspaper, or magazine that relates to nature.

8. If you have a camera/ cameraphone start taking pictures of nature: gardens, plants, animals, insects, weather. Upload them to a social networking site, or something like Flickr.

9. Start talking to your friends about nature, rather than what is on the news, soaps or fanzines.

10. Don’t just go on holidays to lie on the beach. Go with a purpose to look at the natural world there.

11. Grow your own food.

　

In other words it is time for you to HUG THE PLANET.