ArcaMax

The next time you're thinking about hiring a private soccer coach, more violin lessons or a new video game, take the kids for a walk in the woods instead.

Inject a little nature on your next vacation too, even if you're heading to New York City (how about a long walk through Central Park?) or Orlando (get up close and personal with the manatees, or go fishing, www.visitorlando.com).

You'll all be the better for it. "Most parents want their kids to get what it is like to be fully alive, using all of your senses," explains Richard Louv, author of the best-selling book "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder" and the just released "The Nature Principle." which has just been named to Oprah's 2011 Summer Reading List.

"Everything -- critical-thinking, mental health gets better outside," Louv says. "It is as important or more important than Suzuki violin. It is enrichment that gets dismissed as recreation."

Louv is the founding chairman of the Children and Nature Network (www.childrenandnature.org/), which strives to connect families with the outdoors in new ways. His work has stimulated an international conversation about the relationship between nature and children. On C&NN's website, download a how-to guide on starting a family nature club in your community. And, if you've never camped, connect with other families that have.

I met Louv on board Lindblad Expedition's National Geographic Explorer where he was the designated Global Luminary, there to inspire discussion among guests, many of them grandparents.

Too many young parents, Louv lamented, don't have the experience outdoors that baby boomer grandparents had -- growing up building tree houses, running free in the woods. "Young parents don't know where to start," he said. "The baby boomer generation may be the last chance for those memories to be passed on," he says. "We need to realize that ... this may be our last and most redemptive cause."

This effort might entail taking a grandchild fishing, hiking, tide pooling in a marine sanctuary, national park or a far-flung destination. I've met multigenerational groups everywhere from Vermont's hiking trails to Mesa Verde National Park's cliff dwellings in Colorado to the Galapagos Islands.

No worries if you haven't been outdoors in years. "It is a little like riding a bike," Louv says. "It's still in there. It doesn't have to be difficult or complex."

In fact, many companies that specialize in outdoor adventures and expeditions now offer family departures to make it easy and affordable. All you need to do is show up, whether you want to explore western national parks (www.austinlehman.com), Costa Rica's rainforests (www.familyadventures.com), Africa's wildlife (www.abercrombiekent.com) or the Appalachian Trail (www.outdoors.org). Many Elderhostel trips (www.roadscholar.org) are designed for grandparents and grandchildren to explore some aspect of nature together, whether learning about whales in Quebec or dinosaurs in Utah.

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