Strollerderby : nature

Children's Laughter Bugs Pre-School's Neighbors

JeanneSager — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:38:00 GMT

There are plenty of valid reasons why a pre-school should not be placed in a particular area based on a town's zoning. But this one takes the cake.

Neighbors of the Montessori Farmhouse School said it had to go because they didn't want to hear "noise generated by laughter and screaming of young children during outdoor playtime."

Oh, the horrors. Imagine, children laughing! Children screaming out each other's names. Children, children, children!

To be fair, there were other reasons neighbors cited for saying bye bye to the pre-school, including traffic in their rural community in the woods of Washington state. But the fact that they brought this particular "issue" to light has been getting the most attention.

As well it should.

The neighborhood was rural residential, zoned for homes with daycare centers allowable under a special permitting process. In other words, we're talking about the perfect environment for kids to run around in, make noise and just be kids. As developers overtake some of the pristine lands left in this country, these are the kinds of neighborhoods that are disappearing, along with the kids, who are often relegated to indoor play in neighborhoods full of traffic and too-close neighbors with too-small yards.

I grew up in the middle of nowhere, in a place I dare say was even more quiet than the six-acre property in a rural residential neighborhood where the Montessori school was being run. My parents' neighbors were largely second homeowners who were rarely around, and I had the run of the dead-end road. I could scream my lungs out, and no one would hear. It was marvelous. Today, living in a still-small neighborhod, I relish hearing the neighbor's little boy shrieking in delight as he runs pell mell across the yard at the dog or the other neighbors' grandson whooping it up on his tree swing. We're still rural enough that they CAN play outside.

We don't have a school here, no teachers tell our kids where to play or when or direct them not to trample on lawns or keep their voices down.

Yet the hearing examiner who denied the school said the noise would be "materially detrimental to single-family residential properties in the immediate vicinity." He warned that kids going out into the woods to examine the bugs and the trees and the streams "probably would not stay on the footpath during their trips into the woods and would likely trample the stream banks and vegetation in the wetland."

Imagine that - the kids might go exploring. And I suppose deer don't trample vegetation in the wetlands? And squirrels gather their nuts only on footpaths, I'd bet.

I'll give you concerns about site distance regarding the school's driveway or sewage issues, but the idea that adding kids to a residential neighborhood is deterimental is just plain bizarre. Isn't that what residential neighborhoods are for? Places for kids to grow up? The Montessori school, by the way, expected to have no more than forty children when operating at full capacity.

Would you be mad if kids laughed next door? Even forty of them?

Image: LittleGym

Envy the Mongoose - They Pick Their Own Parent

SunnyChanel — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:50:00 GMT

Many people wish that they could have picked their own parents. But with this recent study, you may very well wish you were born a mongoose. Why? Because mongooses (or how I like to call them mongeese), get to just that, they pick their own parent.

The banded mongoose live in large family groups. Many of the females, as many as ten, breed and birth their young around the same time. The pups, after they are born, live in a communal den. As they start to venture out, after about a month, the pup “begins to associate exclusively with one particular adult - not necessarily a parent - that provides nourishment and protection.”

After the pup claims their parent or "escort", they become very possessive and won’t let any other pup within a yard of their caregiver. But the relationship is short lived. After about three months, the pups begin to fend for themselves, and don’t need their “escort” anymore. Hope they keep in touch with their maternal and adopted parents, especially around the holidays.

Is Mother Earth Pro-Choice?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:30:00 GMT

People rarely link sex to global warming. But any activity that occurs 215 million times a day is bound to affect global health. And it’s high time we started talking about it, according to environmentalist and author Robert Engleman, who has a new book called More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want.

In an interview with Reuters, Engleman discussed the delicacy of bringing this issue into mainstream dialogue: “[E]ven to bring it up, as an issue, it sounds as though you are telling other people how many children to have, and that is unforgivable as reproduction and having children is so sensitive and so personal.” He explained that racial sensitivity makes the issue even more volatile: in general, Northern Caucasians have fewer babies than other demographics.

But Engleman is not afraid to (gently) name the problem: “[W]e wouldn’t be facing a potentially catastrophically changing climate if we hadn’t had to feed and care for an unprecedentedly large human population." Although homo sapiens have now succeeded in dominating every “nook and cranny” of the globe, we must keep in mind that the planet has its own ways of dealing with overpopulation. Hopefully, we can slow population growth enough on our own to prevent tragedies like famine or disease.

Engleman believes that the way to do this is to give women reproductive freedom. He points out that women tend to have more children when their environment is healthy, and fewer children when their environment is, say, heating up at an alarming yearly rate.

For this reason, Engleman doesn’t believe that governments should tell women what to do or should take any measures to encourage or discourage procreation. Rather, he feels that if women have access to quality reproductive healthcare, they naturally make the right decisions for themselves and the planet.

Photo: Reuters

Mom Strangles Raccoon With Bare Hands. Whoa.

Kelly Mills — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:02:00 GMT

Have you heard this yet? When a raccoon bit her friend's five year old son, a mom pulled the raccoon off the kid, sent the kids home, and then choked the life out of it with her bare hands. Here's an understatement: "'She had the presence of mind to choke it,' animal control officer April Leiler told the Record-Journal of Meriden. 'She is one tough lady.'" Ya think? I bet the other raccoons spread the word not to get vicious with that woman or any kids in her charge. I know I wouldn't. But hey, don't mess with a mom. I mean, raccoons are tough buggers, and still... Moms: 1; Raccoons: 0. Anyhow, turns out the raccoon did test positive for rabies, so woman and boy are undergoing treatment.

Gosh, I do hope it wasn't this raccoon. But anyhow, I'm imagining the kids, all grown, sitting around and reminiscing: "Remember when mom strangled that rabid raccoon with her bare hands?" I mean, what family doesn't have a story like that?

Cheat Sheet: Ten Ways To Get Your Kids To Love Nature

Patti — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:02:00 GMT

Getting kids off the couch and outside is sometimes easier said than done, especially if you're raising your family in an urban or suburban setting where "outside" isn't necessarily all that pretty (or safe). That makes this handy list of ten ways to help your family connect with the great outdoors a keeper. Compiled by Tiffany of the Natural Family Living blog, these are expert suggestions from someone committed to sustainable living.

Ideas as simple as incorporating books about nature into the reading rotation, or tending houseplants if you can't manage an outdoor garden, are such easy ways to bring your kids closer to the world around them. I love the "build a birdhouse" suggestion, and I'd add an even simpler one: Get a hummingbird feeder. You won't be entertaining a variety of birds with it, but it's hours of entertainment nevertheless and you don't have to lift a hammer to make it happen.

Something that could have been fleshed out better on the list: exploring the state and national parks in your area. Many parks have "junior ranger" type programs where your kids can learn all about the various flora and fauna native to the area, and depending on where you live you may not even be obligated to sleep in a tent or eat over a campfire (some California parks, for example, have pretty great on-site restaurants and lodges). And if your local parks are close enough, ask about day programs. Last time we camped at a nearby state park, about half of the people attending the evening "campfire session" were locals.

Buffalos Open a Can of Whup-Ass

Kelly Mills — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:55:00 GMT

There's a long list of things I can't handle now that I'm a parent. News stories about abused or kidnapped children. Movies like Babel. Books that have a child death as a plot device. Shoot, Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" could send me into a tailspin now.

But you know what tops that list? Nature shows. Because the circle of life often involves baby animals being eaten. Yeah, yeah, it's a wild kingdom out there, but I don't care. I'm content to be a wussy.

So I got all choked up when I watched this video via So Close about lions and a croc fighting over a baby buffalo. It reminded me too much of sending my kid to kindergarten. But then, the buffalos form a posse, and...well, check out what happens. Don't mess with a buffalo baby!

Kids Need the Outdoors

Kelly Mills — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:24:00 GMT

Wondering why so many kids nowadays are obese, play video games nonstop, and squint when every time they get in real sunlight? According to Richard Louv, we are cloistering our children inside, robbing them of communion with nature. The pressure to get kids to succeed academically so they can get into Hah-vard, lack of big fields and other spaces for kids to run around, and to a certain extent T.V. and iPods are all fingered in his book, Last Child in the Woods. And he also looks at the way we parent today. "'The underbelly of this issue is that parents are scared to death,' Louv said. 'Parents are terrified that some stranger is going to take their kids at the corner.' He blamed the national media for taking a handful of terrible crimes against children, magnifying and repeating them over and over, to create a national state of fear."

Amen to that! So many of us are completely freaked about "stranger danger" and restrict our kids' freedom. I know I was allowed to walk the few blocks to the store by the time I was seven, and I still can't imagine my child doing the same, even though I grew up in an urban environment too. As for camping, hiking, and fishing...Well, with so much of our beautiful outdoor space being destroyed, we'll be lucky if we can take the kids to a crowded campsite in a few years. Louv has some great thoughts on all these issues. It's hard to let your kid roam freely when you know he or she will be the only kid out there without a grown-up following right behind, chattering about adult supervision and the next scheduled activity.

Father's Day: Mother Nature Don't Need Daddies

Kelly Mills — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:02:00 GMT

Slate brings us a little summary of some new information from the animal kingdom. Bees, turkeys, snakes, and lizards have been shown to spontaneously fertilize eggs themselves, through a process called parthenogenesis. Scientists previously thought animals at the top of the food chain couldn't do this, until they discovered the immaculate conception in Kimodo dragons. And a shark had a virgin birth too. Uh oh daddies.

What about mammals? We can't do it because of imprinting- but then again, maybe we can with the help of a little technology. Check it out: "A few years ago, scientists produced 10 mice, two of them apparently normal, by manipulating a couple of genes so that eggs could fertilize each other. The scientists predicted 'even greater improvements in the efficiency of parthenogenetic development in mice,' and they vowed to try next with pigs." So at some point in the future, a lesbian couple could have a child without a sperm donor, created from genes from each partner. So much for the importance of the man contribution. Has anyone written a sci fi book where the ladies take over once the men have been rendered obsolete? If not, I call dibs.

Fortunately, lots of guys have other very endearing qualities besides being efficient seed spillers. But the slacker ones might want to watch their step a little, and perhaps get more vigilant on the diaper duty. Hey, Happy Father's Day!