New e-Book Gives Moms New Ways to Get Outdoors with Their Children

Recently, I joined the National Wildlife Foundation’s Be Out There Movement. I teamed up with The Motherhood and more than a dozen mom bloggers to come up cool outdoor ideas for hot summer days. Together, we wrote a crowd-sourced e-book, which is now hot off the presses, or shall I say laptops. You can be the first to get a free copy by clicking here. 

The e-Book features tips from only bloggers but moms like you as well. Several Diary of a First Time Mom readers submitted suggestions and photos of their families for my assigned chapter, Cool Activities for Hot Summer Days. Other chapters include  Balancing Screen Time with Green Time, Outdoor Time in Everyday Life, Nighttime Activities and Celebrating Special Occasions in the Great Outdoors.

Why publish a book on this hot topic? Well, The Motherhood and the National Wildlife Foundation conducted a survey of social media moms back in June 2012 and found that 94% of moms think kids are not spending enough time outdoors and one-third of moms feel guilty that their kids aren’t spending more time outside. According to the mothers surveyed, the biggest barriers to getting kids outside were: weather (61%), safety concerns (38%) and technology (36%). So, hopefully this book will help families find fun ways to get outdoors. If you want to join the Be Out There Movement, you can take the pledge here.

I was thrilled to be assigned the “water baby” chapter. I’ve been swimming since I’ve been walking, and Caitlynn is following in my fins–I mean footsteps. I found more than the amount of information that was required for my portion of the book, so I’m excited to share what made the cut and what didn’t. Check out this slide show to see what DFTM members are doing to keep their little ones cool without a pool.

Hey DFTM Fam–What outdoor activities would you add to the list?