The Book: Forever Wild Parenting
Remember when you couldn’t wait to get outside and spend all day playing? More and more, today’s children are missing out on the simple joys of building a fort, jumping a creek, picking honeysuckle, or just exploring at will. And play isn’t all they’re missing: such activities provide enrichment and experiential learning no TV show or video game can replace. What can parents do to get their kids unplugged and out-of-doors?
Forever Wild Parenting is filled with inspiration and practical guidance for parents who want their kids to have an active, enriching childhood. Environmental educator Laura Blind and her daughter Lauren Bontrager paint a lively picture of the possibilities with their unforgettable personal stories of family togetherness, rollicking adventure, and invaluable lessons learned. Each story brings to life the values that every parent wants their kids to develop and take with them into adulthood. Fun activities and opportunities for reflection at the end of each chapter give you all the tools you need to create your own “wild” experiences for the whole family!
Discover how to:
• Bring unstructured, meaningful play into your child’s life
• Encourage your children to become confident problem solvers
• Teach life lessons through hands-on experience
• Turn your child’s adventures into cherished family traditions and memories
• Deepen your family bond through healthy outdoor fun.
Forever Wild Parenting is filled with inspiration and practical guidance for parents who want their kids to have an active, enriching childhood. Environmental educator Laura Blind and her daughter Lauren Bontrager paint a lively picture of the possibilities with their unforgettable personal stories of family togetherness, rollicking adventure, and invaluable lessons learned. Each story brings to life the values that every parent wants their kids to develop and take with them into adulthood. Fun activities and opportunities for reflection at the end of each chapter give you all the tools you need to create your own “wild” experiences for the whole family!
Discover how to:
• Bring unstructured, meaningful play into your child’s life
• Encourage your children to become confident problem solvers
• Teach life lessons through hands-on experience
• Turn your child’s adventures into cherished family traditions and memories
• Deepen your family bond through healthy outdoor fun.
How the book was born...
In January 2011, my mom fractured her tibia both vertically and horizontally. When the fourth and final cast was cut off her right hand, we realized that swelling from the injury had caused severe nerve damage and left her hand paralyzed. She had no movement in her right hand, wrist, or fingers. It was then that my mom grabbed hold of a dream that gave her the fight to push through the painful process of physical therapy and receive a miraculous healing of movement in her hand again. With her left hand, and then gradually with her right, she began writing down stories from her childhood and parenting, in hopes of inspiring the future generations to encounter God and so many of the lessons of life through hands-on experiences in nature. And while planning a wedding, enjoying the first year of marriage, working full-time, and buying our first home---mom and I worked together to turn the stories into Forever Wild Parenting. This book is a tangible reminder that God plants dreams inside of us and even when the odds seem impossible, will breathe life on them at just the right time. Sometimes the toughest seasons produce the most vibrant sprouts, the hearty kind that with a little sun and water grow into deep rooted trees. Working on this book together as a mother-daughter team has truly been so much more than we had ever dreamed. ~Lauren
Hot off the press...Get Your Copy Today!
Parent.....Grandparent.....Teacher.....Boy Scout or Girl Scout Leader.....Coach....Outdoor Educator.....for all those who fondly remember those adventure-filled childhood days of playing outside, this book is for you. Have you been noticing that the younger generations aren't getting outside as much as you did when you were a kid? This book will encourage parents with practical and creative ideas of how to get outside and make memories their children will never forget.
A great baby shower gift, Mother's or Father's Day gift....and especially those "I was just thinking about you." gifts for a special person in your life. You'll be laughing and learning from the stories you read out loud together! Enjoy your next adventure outside!
A great baby shower gift, Mother's or Father's Day gift....and especially those "I was just thinking about you." gifts for a special person in your life. You'll be laughing and learning from the stories you read out loud together! Enjoy your next adventure outside!
Editorial Review from Independent Publisher Magazine
With humorous anecdotes and compelling insight, Forever Wild Parenting brings nature and adventure back into the art of parenting. Authors Laura Tyler Blind and Lauren Blind Bontrager demonstrate the importance of connecting children to the natural world at a crucial time when video games and cell phones have top priority. This much-needed book cuts right to the heart of the modern day conundrum - the overfilled calendars of today’s families.
Through their own fond memories and experiences, Blind and Bontrager present a powerful case of the value in allowing kids to be kids. With longer school days, an abundance of organized, after-school activities, and electronic gadgetry abound, are our children given the opportunity to explore, to make mistakes, to learn real life lessons on their own, to be free, to roam wild?
To us, as parents, this almost sounds a little scary. Yet, think about your own childhood and all you learned from those independent opportunities. Being outdoors, getting dirty, working conflict out with the neighbor kids and your siblings on your own. The world is out there, just waiting to be explored and absorbed. Send your kids outside and go out with them, occasionally, too!
Forever Wild Parenting offers a bundle of activities you and your children can partake in together, swallowing up your surroundings and getting back to the basics, connecting with what makes the world turn.
The opening quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes stamped on the first page of this book says it all, “We do not quit playing because we grow old; we grow old because we quit playing.”
Through their own fond memories and experiences, Blind and Bontrager present a powerful case of the value in allowing kids to be kids. With longer school days, an abundance of organized, after-school activities, and electronic gadgetry abound, are our children given the opportunity to explore, to make mistakes, to learn real life lessons on their own, to be free, to roam wild?
To us, as parents, this almost sounds a little scary. Yet, think about your own childhood and all you learned from those independent opportunities. Being outdoors, getting dirty, working conflict out with the neighbor kids and your siblings on your own. The world is out there, just waiting to be explored and absorbed. Send your kids outside and go out with them, occasionally, too!
Forever Wild Parenting offers a bundle of activities you and your children can partake in together, swallowing up your surroundings and getting back to the basics, connecting with what makes the world turn.
The opening quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes stamped on the first page of this book says it all, “We do not quit playing because we grow old; we grow old because we quit playing.”
