201 Nature and Human Nature Activities
This book contains a gazillion time-tested ways (give or take a couple quadrillion) to put into practice the thought-full ideas behind the current volume. Parents, teachers, and camp staff will find oodles of engaging, enjoyable, entertaining, encouraging, enticing, educational exercises exploring the connection between nature and human nature. With a balance of outdoor and indoor invitations to connect with the natural environment and to connect with others, you will find a treasure trove of individual, small group, and large group activities along with guidelines for how participants can get the most out of these activities. You will discover practical humanistic education strategies to help people of all ages in schools, camps, youth groups, religious institutions, YMCA's, adult education, families, and other settings to: promote mindfulness, awareness, and respect for nature and the environment; develop communication skills; build a sense of community; clarify personal, social, and environmental values; and nurture self-esteem. As icing on the cake, this book will leave you laughing… and thinking… about important environmental issues through John McPherson's internationally-syndicated Close to Home cartoons.
Humanizing Outdoor and Environmental Education
This book is a thought-full and mindful guide to the humanistic approach to outdoor and environmental education that will be of special interest to teachers, parents, and camp staff. This volume focuses on the “why's” for planning and implementing nature experiences for people of all ages. In addition to a chapter on curriculum and program development for schools and camps, this volume draws on the expertise, experience, and wisdom of trend-setting pioneers and practitioners like Cheryl Charles, Richard Louv, Joseph Cornell, Roger Greenaway, Jeff McKay, Matt Weinstein, and Pamela Kekich. The book includes probing, intriguing, informative, insightful, and inspiring interviews with them on the “new nature movement,” nature mindfulness and awareness, reflecting and reviewing experiential learning, cooperative play, adventure learning, humanistic camps, and creative coaching. The chapters are filled with tips and practical activities that invite active and interactive learning. The book also provides a detailed case study of the leading-edge Human Relations Youth Adventure Camp and offers an extensive chapter with over 125 annotations for books, periodicals, websites, and organizations in the humanistic, outdoor, and environmental education fields. As a bonus, this book includes thought-provoking quotes to jump-start your brain and heart about the connection between nature and human nature.
This book artfully weaves together activities that expand our consciousness of ourselves and of the natural world around us at the same time. It is more than a gold mine of ideas, new perspectives, and practical methods. It is really six or seven books disguised as one. The book contains more activities than you could ever use in two years of teaching or in a lifetime of camp experiences. I am both amazed and impressed at the depth and breadth of what Joel and Cliff know and share with us in this book.
Jack Canfield
Co-creator, #1 New York Times best selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul®
Author, The Success Principles: How to Get From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be™
www.jackcanfield.com
Dr. Clifford Knapp and Dr. Joel Goodman have written two books that truly “cover all the bases” in humanizing environmental
