I don't think I've ever posted this here and I'm not sure why, but I wanted to pass this on in case anybody found it helpful.
Starting in January of 2019 I've been putting out an ad-free nature
magazine online for kids.
It's in PDF form and can be read online or printed out. It's usually about 16 pages and has information for kids (and their grown ups) about foraging, fun things to do outside, ways to help the environment, etc. Each month has two botanical coloring pages from Elizabeth Blackwell, a fantastic artist who created some of the best botanical illustrations ever done as a way to free her husband from debtor's prison a couple of hundred+ years ago (I teach about her in the first issue). There are also seasonal nature poems, weather
trees (color in a leaf for each day to keep track of the day's weather), foraging record keeping pages, nature study records and more.
I have tried to include information for folks in the Southern hemisphere but I must admit there is a slant towards foraging and nature study in the Northern hemisphere as I live in Minnesota and I'm just not as familiar with foraging in places like Australia as the U.S.
I have included some and have tried to make it useful for all though.
Here are a few of the covers from past magazines.
And here is this month's magazine.
You can view them all on
the Wild Kids website and download them or read them there. You don't have to sign up for anything or do anything at all to download it. It's just a
project I do to try to do some good in the world.
I have not decided if I'm going to continue into 2020. I originally committed to doing one year and said I'd take it from there. My family is encouraging me to stop as it's a lot of time every month and we have a busy life with 4 kids still at home, and it costs money as so many people download it that our little website charges us an overage fee. But I believe strongly in this subject and it's a bit of a "Miss Rumphius" project of mine (in the picture book Miss Rumphius, an elderly lady spreads lupines all through the countryside because her grandfather has taught her that we all must find something to do to make the world more beautiful).
In any case, I'm strongly leaning towards continuing it into the new year and thought folks here might like the magazine or know a child in their lives who might. Feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might benefit, and if you'd ever like to contribute any content (or know a child who would -- my kids have written some of the content) feel free to do that too!
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