Friday, June 15, 2012

Last Child In The Woods Book Club Week 2

This week for the book club we read chapters 4 through 8 in the Last Child in the Woods. The more I read this book the more I realize how much children in general really need to spend as much time outside in nature as possible. The 8th chapter is really what struck me the most. This chapter is about how nature can possibly help in treatment for ADHD. My son was diagnosed with ADD in 4th grade and struggled throughout his academic career with it. We tried medication for about 6 months but the side effects just weren't worth it. Trouble sleeping, no appetite, and for every year of taking the medication you had the possibility of not growing a 1/2 an inch, he was already the smallest kid in the class. He is now 22 and through maturity has learned to control some of his focusing problems or to just work around it. But how great it would have been to realize some of the relation between nature and being outside with the treatment for ADD and ADHD back during the really rough school year. Now with my younger child we are lucky in the area that we live that all we have to do is walk out the front or back door and we are in nature. Plus windows throughout the house that show us nature even when we are hitting the books.

Something else that stood out to me was some of the children used as examples in the book that haven't been in nature all their lives. The children that live in the inner city that haven't traveled farther than the next suburb. It is quite sad. I really enjoyed reading about the inner city kids that traveled to Alaska as a form of punishment. Most of these kids had not been anywhere and were very amazed at the sights they were seeing for the first time. Can you imagine being a child that had never seen a mountain, waterfall, wild animal, or a beautiful meadow. Interested to see what else this book shows me in the next 4 chapters.

3 comments:

Eddie said...

My son (who is coming up for 20)has ADHD too, and he had a similar school experience. He said the other day that moving here where we're next door to miles of nature trails has helped him to feel calmer and more focused. Wish we'd been able to offer it to him when he was younger!

I know for myself that I feel much, much crankier if I haven't been out hiking on any given day, even if it's just a couple of miles.

This book's really great, isn't it? I'm really enjoying the read.

Unknown said...

Eddie,
I too wish I had known about this information when my son was younger. It is a good book that really makes you stop and think.
Blessings
Diane

Nicole said...

Hi Diane! SO SORRY I haven't gotten to you before now. It seems like this summer is running away from me!!

I was planning on us reading Chapters 9, 10, and 11 for this week. It's not Wednesday, so I had better get started! Geez!

I will do ALL I CAN to get my post up by Friday morning, because we may be traveling AGAIN if my sister is admitted to have her baby on Friday (which is a possibility).

Thank you so much for joining me in this journey. I am getting so much out of this book! Wish it was cooler so we could just BE outside!!