The Real Outdoors

Camping is of the best ways to expose your kids to unstructured, outdoor play. A visit to one of our region's national parks or wildlife areas gives them a chance to experience the "real" outdoors in a setting that (hopefully) has no TVs, iPhones or DVD players. Those opportunities are rare today, and camping provides a way to go backward in time to when kids spent most of their time playing in the woods and getting dirty.

We took little L on his first camping trip this past weekend to the North Cascades National Park. He's too little to run around and play in the woods, but he's not too young to enjoy being outside.

We were thrilled to see that he seemed to really love it. The fresh air is good for his lungs. So, is the exposure to new experiences, such as looking up at huge old growth trees, hearing new bird calls and feeling the early morning mist. He experienced his first night in a tent with the rain pounding on the nylon ceiling. He took his first hike and looked out at the lake from the viewpoint 600 feet above.

For three days we listened to children playing from morning to night all around the campground. Shouts of joy and discovery.

Kids enjoying the real outdoors.