Articles of Interest
Treasured memories of family camping trips keep thousands of Australians making an annual pilgrimage.
GIVE ME SUN. Give me sand. Give me surf. Give me watermelon pips, white bread sandwiches and silver long toms strung from hand-held fishing lines. Give me balmy summer nights under a canvas canopy. Give me mosquito coils, guy ropes, sleeping bags and the distant sound of someone snoring. Give me all of this and I’ll give you 1001 golden childhood memories pegged out in camping grounds nationwide.
Bill Garner says that camping is essential to the Australian experience read more of what Bill says about this extraordinary phenomenon. Camping an Australian Tradition by Australian Geographic
Generation next is born to be mild - Risk-taking a lost rite of childhood Jackie Sinnerton From: The Sunday Mail (Qld)
OUTDOOR play is rapidly becoming a relic of the past as fearful parents shield their kids from "risky'' activities. According to research done for environmental organisation Planet Ark, more than 70 per cent of today's parents played outside every day as kids, compared with 35 per cent of their children. They say that, in one generation, the number of kids climbing trees has dropped by almost 50 per cent.
"Team that with the explosion of indoor electronic entertainment, as well as extra-busy parents who don't have time to supervise outside play, and it looks bleak. But there are people trying to buck that trend. "Projects such as the Tinkering School in the US, where kids get to light fires, drive nails, use an axe, build an old raft, are a fantastic idea. It's like Bear Grylls meets childcare. Wouldn't the kids just love it? "Children learn from experience, not from lectures..."
