Next week, March 15-21, is National Wildlife Week. To help you get excited and create a successful plan to get your family outdoors to celebrate, I've put together a couple of good resources.  These include Let's Go Outside, Where the Other You Lives, and Be Out There.

Let's Go Outside

Sponsored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Let's Go Outside has lots of suggestions for fun ways to enjoy the outdoors. The page itself has several sections, including specific sections for kids, parents, and educators. The kids page is fun, as it has links to several games they can play, like the Neighbor Explorers. Kids play a game where they explore a virtual neighborhood, and then are encouraged to go outside into their own neighborhood and have a similar adventure. Its a fun game, and a fun way to get kids excited about getting outside and searching for things.

Where the Other You Lives

Put together by the Ad Council and The U.S. Forest Service, Where the Other You Lives has two cool features. The first, Where To Go, takes you to an interactive map that will show you forests and parks within a certain geographical range (which you input) of your location (zip code). The locations are displayed on a Google Map, which then allows you to click on any of the displayed markers to find out more information about the location. This is a great way to find new areas close to you that you may not have been aware of, so why not explore a new hike as a way to celebrate National Wildlife Week!

The other section is called What To Do. It features some fun, interactive activities your family can use to learn new skills: use a compass, learn animal tracks, etc. They are pretty fun activities and a good way to get kids excited about being outdoors and learning new skills at the same time. I sat down and went through the the compass exercise with my four year old last week, and then gave him a compass to take with us on a hike during the weekend. He loved having the compass and was able to start learning the basic concepts about how it worked (not to mention his own sense of direction around N,S,E, and W.)

Be Out There

A product of the National Wildlife Federation, Be Out There is dedicated to helping parents get their kids participating in outdoor activities. To help, they provide great information and resources that you can use to help make sure your kids are getting enough time outdoors, including free play (not everything needs to be organized, kids are great at creating their own fun activities!). You can also sign up to receive an email each month with different outdoor activities by taking a survey and making a commitment to Know, Go, and Grow in and through outdoor play time.

Even if you don't have the time or inclination to use these resources, or others like them, its easy to go outdoors and enjoy time with your family. Nothing beats the old fashioned walk around the block. Its a great time to bond, and nothing says you can't try to pass along a little knowledge to them about the outdoors at the same time!