Here we go again, I'm going to have to add one of my trail journal entries to this thread since I read that kids only spend on average 4 minutes outside a day. Wow. Here we go, I wrote this on my last 15 day February backpacking trip:

NADDS: NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER
This is probably the most common childhood disease in America today. Many adults have terminal cases but the greatest percentage of cases are with children and young adults between the ages of 2 to 20. As President of the American Association of NADDS(Am Ass O' Nadds), my job is to educate and develop strategies but, beyond this, in no way to upset business as usual and to actually try and get people outdoors and in nature. Am Ass O' Nadds produces quarterly papers on the disorder and it's remedies which no one reads, in the Journal of Home Addiction(JOHA). The Diagnostic Statistical Manual (DSM-5) lists NADDS as being the number one mental disorder in America today and the cause of most of the crime in the U.S.

JEBEDIAH CORNWHOLE: FOUNDING FATHER OF NADDS TREATMENT
Old mountain man Jebediah Cornwhole, founding father of NADD treatment, says:
"Waugh! I take the little citified curs and sheep-dip 'em in a beaver pond overnight and the next day we build a fire and cook up hump meat and it takes about a week and they go nowhere near a house. Here's some Kid Testimonials:"

Johnny Furbish: "I've been to a town."
Epperson Zytote: "Ya ask me what's on the grill? Why, grown particular?"
Towham Turlish, age 14: "Thanks for the interview. Now watch your topknot."
Surlish Towmotor, age 16: "Buffler tongue and elk flank in a batter of cornmeal, now that there's eating!"

HOW TO CURE NADDS BY DR. CROW PEEN
Curing NADDS can be downright dangerous as old codger and doctor Crow Peen describes: "I had a bunch of kids broke from the electrical plugs and had 'em scattered under hemlocks when a govt helicopter flew over with onboard marksmen and blasting out the sounds of rabbits being killed on big speakers. "Peen!", they said, "Come out and return those children to their homes!" And just then one of the kids, I guess you'd call him cured, threw a spear into the tail rotor and another kid let lose a barrage of slingshot rocks and dang it if the chopper didnt start smoking and veer away."
"I was very proud of my boys but they knew we didn't have time to jaw and so we moved at night and they never did find us. That was 15 years ago and those boys are now men and leaders in the NADDS recovery movement. There's thousands of them now scattered across the country and so ya better think twice before spending all day on a couch in front of a TV or get excited about clearcutting a last patch of trees for a shopping mall. These guys take nature seriously. Old Jeb Cornwhole taught them well and if ya ever see an old rusted disabled bulldozer sitting by the side of the road, ya know old Jeb is still out and about. " ALL QUOTES FROM CROW PEEN.

NADDS RECOVERY
NADDS became the top news story recently when every television set in Dallas TX stopped working for 3 days resulting in the mass suicide of 62,000 people, mostly teenagers. Since then the syphilized King Tuts in charge put together a fact sheet on the disorder but it made no sense. Here were some of its recommendations:
** Paint all houses a soothing green.
** Keep people inside with more televised sex and violence.
** Require all house dwellers to have indoor pets and live house plants.
** Generate more outdoor air pollution requiring people to stay indoors or die.

Anyway, this dementia goes on and on, ending with an interview with U.S. Army General Adolf Hickler about the on-going war against nature.

I'm not going out with my child this weekend, but will be going out next. I just joined a group called Outdoor Adventure Club South. It's on meetup.com and the advantages are that the activities are member driven. One of my own goals for the group is to see if I can get other people with kids together, one, to actively promote parents who love the outdoors that there are other parents and we can be support groups. The second, and most important, is to provide a network for us to get together and get are children outdoors and involved.

As part of that, next weekend I'm doing our first kid friendly event. It is a scavenger hunt in a local park that is mostly fields and woods. We'll also have a picnic and a short hike.

I'm hoping that I can get even more events started as the warm weather comes in.

We just got back from a weekend trip to Steamboat Springs for a 100 Years of Scouting event with my 11 y/o son. The highlight of Saturday was an introduction to the wonderful world of Nordic skiing. We've done a lot of snowshoeing but this was our first time on skis. He did pretty good until he got tired and hungry. Mom and Dad had a rougher time of it as we appear to be somewhat equilibrium challenged when it comes to a pair of skis. The hot tub at the hotel got a workout when we were through.

At the dinner Sat. night, the guest speaker was Billy Kidd. He still lives and skis in Steamboat and impressed me with being a genuinly nice person. My son didn't understand who he is other than a former Olympic skier, but he was impressed with the gold and silver medals that he brought along. It was a real treat to meet and talk with him and get his autograph, too.