The North Face

Get Outdoors With Kids | Athlete Parents

The path starts here. We at The North Face® love the outdoors. It’s where we develop character, confidence, clear minds, and respect for nature. We believe in sharing this passion through all types of exploration. We know getting outdoors is often easier said than done. For that reason, we created a platform where you can learn tips, read stories, and share experiences with athletes from our team who “play” outdoors on a daily basis. With the Get Outdoors With Kids Blog you can connect with members of our global athlete team who have explored the far-reaching corners of the world but also like to hangout in their own backyard. Our goal is to inspire the next generation of explorers and conservationists by helping them discover nature’s playground. Adventure is everywhere. Never Stop Exploring™.

Learn more about Get Outdoors With Kids.

Jun 20 | ROLE MODELS :: TNF Athlete MIKE WARDIAN tips for the Active parent

By Athlete Parents

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1) Bring Snacks--even if you just feed your kids, they are going to get hungry being outside and having snacks (cereal, pretzels, cheese sticks, fruit, etc...) & drinks (water/milk, etc..) will make the run better for everyone

 

2) Bring extra clothes, the kids are going to be sitting for the most part and that means they are going to be cold (if spring, fall, winter) so having blankets and extra gloves, hats, will be a must.

 

3) I suggest bringing a cell phone (with camera), just in case anything happens you can always get in touch with someone and snap a neat picture of the kids and you somewhere cool.

 

4) I would suggest having some some toys (small stuff you don't mind losing-not you child's favorite action figure, etc...) so you can something to provide depending on the length of the run.

 

5) Try to remember diapers, wipes, just in case....

 

6) Sunscreen and a hat (warm and/or baseball-depending on season) to block sun

 

7) It is also nice to have some small books/magazines, so they can view and ask questions

 

8) It is also nice to have a plan/goal with the kids so you can "share" the experience, saying that we are going to run to the "this location", look for it.

 

9) Think of games to play with the kids, I like "I Spy", such a great game and interesting what they find.

 

10) Don't be afraid to make deals with the kids, such as I will run now and we can stop at the playground for you guys/girls to play at the end of the run or we can run the last 1 mile together back to the house.

Jun 13 | Role Models :: TNF Athlete Hilaree O'neill Tips for the Active Parent

By Athlete Parents

 Visit www.thenorthface.com/rolemodels to find a Role Models clinic near you!

In the last two years our family has spent a lot of time on the road, camping and just being outside. Below, I’ve assembled my five tips for maintaining sanity while family camping.  Our children are still fairly young, 2 and 4, so keep that in mind as you read.

1)  Keep it simple.

This is something I aspire to be good at but have yet to achieve.  I am always trying to do too many things in one trip and it’s very easy to get bogged down.

 

 

2) Don’t have an agenda.

 It’s still difficult for me to let go of doing the things I would normally do while camping pre-kids. Hike ten miles before setting up a tent. Go climbing all day. Camp in the snow and ski tour all day. With young children you must have low expectations on the activity front. Scale everything back a few notches and focus on what your kids find exciting. Remember, if you can keep it fun and not tie yourself to a schedule, you’re more likely to have kids that love camping.

 

3) Pack well.

This is key for driving. I am one of those people that really doesn’t like to stop. If I can be uber-organized on the front end with snacks and toys, books and blankets, I stop less. Also, the more organized we are with all our camping gear the easier it is to pack the car and to set up camp when we arrive.

 

4)Loosen up.

Obviously, when family camping it’s impossible to maintain the same routine and rules as with day to day living at home. For me, the point of camping is to let the kids get dirty. They get to eat a lot of things they don’t get at home. They can go to bed a little later than usual. I find it makes the whole experience a bit of a luxury for the kids and easier for mom and dad.

 

5) Bring ear plugs.

Camping can be tight quarters. Not only with our own kids, but we camp a lot with other families with young kids and it can get really noisy in the middle of the night. Ear plugs are my saviors.

 

 

Jun 06 | Role Models :: TNF Athlete Kris Erickson tips for the traveling parent

By Athlete Parents

Visit www.thenorthface.com/rolemodels to find a Role Models clinic near you!

Tips for Traveling with Children

 

All parents know that they need to pack healthy snacks, extra clothes, DVD's, favorite blankets, and stuffed animals to keep their children comfortable and entertained when traveling.  But there is much more to packing than just physical objects. Here are 5 things that The North Face athlete Kristoffer Erickson never leaves home without when traveling with his daughter Noor.

 

Patience – Travel is hectic. Remember that kids, especially little ones, don't understand schedules and time frames and will find all the pieces of travel that make us crazy interesting, new and fun.  Build in time for this exploration, get to the airport early, stop at rest stops, give yourself plenty of time and patience for children to explore their changing surroundings.

 

Flexibility – The only thing reliable about travel is that it is unreliable.  We can't foresee delayed flights, flat tires, or weather interruptions.  Make plans and set goals for travel but be prepared to be flexible when things change and don't go as planned.

 

The Great Outdoors – Make getting outside your number one priority.  Fresh air is therapy to children and adults alike and gives everyone the patience to travel, plus it makes the kids sleep better! Incorporate fresh air into every day's schedule.  It doesn’t have to be a full day outing in the forest, a little can go a long way. Do some research ahead and find a park near your hotel or get up early and go for a nature walk,

 

A Sense of Adventure – Turn everyday activities and tasks into an adventure for little ones. Involve your children in the decision making process while creating your schedule and make a point to do something they suggest, even if it seems crazy.  Let them take you on an adventure and take a minute to see life through their eyes and for the adventure that it is.

 

Leadership – Children follow our lead as parents and mentors. They look to us and our actions to see what is okay to explore and experience. Traveling provides a unique opportunity to lead them into challenging, stimulating and educational experiences.  But new places and different cultures can also be scary for children, so show them that it is okay to eat something different or to say hello to a stranger in a different language.

May 30 | Role Models :: TNF Athlete Kit Deslauriers tips for the active parent

By Athlete Parents

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#1         Keep them comfortable

 The saying that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing is true but in this case the responsibility falls on the parent for ensuring their children are dressed properly.  This especially goes for the little ones who don’t have the communication skills to let you know exactly what is happening.  For instance, when our 3.5 year old wanted to go home after two ski runs she was being generally fussy but couldn’t say why she didn’t want to ski (as much as she usually wants to ski). Once home with her boots off she told me that the skin on her feet was “crinkled”.  I took at closer look at how quickly her feet grown recently and we went right out to find bigger ski boots.  Then to keep the momentum, we got back out on the mountain for two more runs before the lifts closed so we could test her new gear and make sure we had solved the problem.

 

#2         Take breaks:         This is the time for hot cocoa!

Kids need a lot of snacks to keep their energy up when they are out there and while I believe that sweets should be used in absolute moderation, it’s not the end of the world to take breaks for things like hot chocolate because the child can get the quick rest and re-warm that they might need while boosting their blood sugar.  Maybe pull that PB&J out of your pocket and insist the child eats it while they wait for their yummy drink to cool down.

 

#3         Stay creative

It’s amazing to give birth to our own best teachers and one of my favorite parts of being a parent is the way that our kids constantly fire up my own creativity.  Does your girl want to wear a tutu over her one-piece ski suit? Why not?  Ski fast away from a monster?  Have a dinosaur hunt through the trees?  For sure!

#4         Involve Community

 Kids love to play with their friends so find ways to involve other young people in your snow sports and the fun factor will likely ramp way up.  As adults we often find inspiration in ‘getting out there’ by making plans to meet up with our friends.  It’s the same for kids.  If you are going to a resort where your usual friends are not also visiting, you can look for local snow sculpture castles or other places in the community where children gather and can meet one another like the playgrounds we all frequent in the sunny summer months.

 

#5         Offer Options

 We parents walk a fine line between doing things the way we want them done (i.e. “You are going to ski school today. Period.”) vs. allowing our children to decide what they want to do with their time.  Of course we are talking about an ages old parenting style discussion yet if we remember what our goals are (which in this case are to foster a love for the outdoors in winter) then consider presenting some choices to reach your goal.  If a child, for instance, doesn’t want to ski or snowboard that day they still may want to get outside by making a snowman, throwing snowballs at a safe target, making angels in the snow, playing a game of tracking animals in the snow or creating a delicious treat of clean snow and honey or maple

May 23 | Role Models :: TNF Athlete Dean Karnazes tips for the active parent

By Athlete Parents

Visit www.thenorthface.com/rolemodels to find a Role Models clinic near you!

 

1.            Start from the ground up making sure everyone has a good pair of shoes.

2.            Try to always keep it fun and upbeat, even when things get tough.

3.            Strive for an amount of time of activity (say 45-minutes) rather than a set distance such as 4-                  miles.

4.            Always remain well hydrated.

5.            In colder weather, layer to help insure proper protection from the elements and comfort.

May 16 | Role Models :: TNF Athlete Jim Zellers tips for the active parent

By Athlete Parents

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1. Exposure can be as important as doing the activity. When our kids were old enough to walk we would strap skis on their feet and they'd just walk around the house or outside without us ever having them get on snow. 

2. Refrain from measurements until your kids are screaming for it.  And I mean screaming! We never have entered our kids into a competition (without them begging), measured how far, high, long, what place they came in, how fast they went, or even talked about the ranking of other kids they play outside with.  They'll be measure for the rest of their lives so don't start that path too young.

3. No complaining.  This is a two way strategy.  Simply put, kids need not complain if they are outside playing and parents need not ask kids to go too far beyond their ability and risk having their kids complain.  If our kids began complaining on a long backpacking trip we'd slow it down, camp, or if we needed to keep going to the next camp, explain that we are a family and we need to work together to make this day happen.  We would also have a bit of a backup plan.  If what we were asking the kids to do was a little beyond them, we'd have an idea of how to make it easier as the activity progressed.

4. Include other kids. Kids feed off of each other's energy so if other kids can be brought into the mix of playing outside, they become more creative and tend to stay focused on their activity longer.  This can be work, but we have always tried to throw another kid in the car to snowboard, climb, mt. bike, or just hike out to a swimming hole.  We find over the years, the kids all refer to, "That time we went".........and the story begins.  It has created a mini legacy for the kids in our community that they all belong to.

5. Stand your ground.  This might be the hardest thing to deal with in most communities.  People understand stick and ball sports because they can be measured, but mt. biking?, a powder day?, building a rope swing into a lake? Not as easy to convince other parents, other kids, and sometimes our own that they are all great ideas. We just tell them we're going, make sure we have enough food (including chocolate), and head out and prove how awesome it is to be playing outside.  And sometimes they believe us.

May 09 | Richard Louv :: Applying the Nature Principle to Your Life

By Athlete Parents

20 Ways to Create a Restorative Home and Garden 

 

Saving energy is important; so is producing human energy. In The Nature Principle, I make the case that, because of the restorative power of the natural world, bringing more nature into our lives can contribute to our mental and physical health, creativity, and productivity. Whether you’re building a new home or retrofitting your existing home and garden, here are a few tips for applying the Nature Principle:

Indoors

1.Bring the outside in. Create “living walls” of ficus, hibiscus, orchids, and other plants or an indoor vertical vegetable garden with grids for planting and automatic drip-irrigation systems. Such walls can reduce indoor air pollutants.

2.Use ecosensitive “natural” decorations, such as twig furniture, a dresser made of reclaimed wood, robes made of sustainable bamboo fabric.

3. Use trees, live or dead, as decoration in high-ceilinged living rooms.

4. Record nature sounds and fill your house with them.

5. Use fluorescent lights that adjust throughout the day via light sensors at the windows, Also, try motion-sensitive light switches, sensor-regulated water taps and soap dispensers, waterless urinals, and water-saving toilets.

6. To protect wildlife, add bird-warning elements to windows.

7. Combine solar panels with skylights. Install them over water gardens and other living features.

Outdoors

 8. Reduce your lawn. Replace it with bird-attracting plants, trees, and bushes. (Lawns are now the largest irrigated crop in the United States.)

9. Plant an organic vegetable garden or plant fruit trees.

10.  Install a beehive, or raise chickens or ducks for eggs. Some cities are loosening regulations to encourage yard farming.

11.  Create nature-rich, calming places to sit, read, think, and converse.

12.  Plant a butterfly garden; help bring back butterfly migration routes.

13.  Space-restricted urbanites can use dwarf tree varieties and mini-gardens to transform small balconies and windowsills.

14.  Install a chlorine-free natural swimming pond cleaned by regeneration zones: aquatic plants, rocks, loose gravel, and friendly bacteria that act as water filters.

When building a new home

15.  Design natural landscapes to look good from the curb and also from inside the home.

16.  Place the house in sync with the sun’s movements so that sleeping and waking are in accord with available light: place large windows on the south-facing wall for passive solar heating, but also for a view of nature.

17.  Whenever possible, use local materials to reflect the nature and history of the region.

18.  Install a super-insulated green roof that can last 80 years (compared with the 40-year average for conventional roofs).

19.  Design for natural airflow and air-conditioning with appropriately placed windows and high ceiling fans for natural ventilation.

20.  Homes built with cordwood masonry (lumber set in earthen mortar), cement mixed with recycled-paper pulp, aerated concrete or straw-bale walls can be so energy efficient that they need no air-conditioning.

 

Richard Louv is the author of THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age, now available in paperback. He is chairman emeritus of the Children and Nature Network and 2012 spokesperson for the CLIF Kid Backyard Game of the Year. For more information on his books, go to www.richardlouv.com. For a free online Field Guide to the New Nature Movement, see http://richardlouv.com/books/nature-principle/field-guide/.

 

May 02 | Richard Louv :: Applying the Nature Principle to Your Life

By Athlete Parents

21 Ways to Start Creating a Restorative Neighborhood or City

As of 2008, more than half of the world’s population lived in cities. That’s a huge moment in human history. By 2030, that proportion will likely jump to two-thirds. This transformation will produce one of two outcomes: the end of meaningful daily experience in nature, or the beginning of a new kind of city. Here are some ideas, adapted from The Nature Principle, that I believe can help us understand what it means to create and live in a restorative city, beginning with your neighborhood. Right now.

 

1. Reimagine your city as an engine of biodiversity and human health.
2. Restore nearby nature and create new habitat; rebuild local food webs; and encourage urban wildlife.
3. Recognize and increase human-nature social capital, thereby creating healthier habitat for humans and other animals.
4. Plant native species in your yard; create butterfly zones in your neighborhood; help build a Homegrown National Park.
5. Create a De-central Park in every city. Button Parks, too.
6. Establish new human-nature networks, including family nature clubs and green gyms.
7. Connect the region with wildlife and humanlife corridors.
8. Establish restorative transportation systems, including naturalized bike and pedestrian paths; quieter, more efficient public transit; and shade parking areas with green roofs and/or solar panels.
9. Challenge neighborhood CC&Rs and other barriers of law, regulation, and rules.

10.  Adopt development policies favorable to green roofs, green walls, etc.

11.  Replace decaying shopping malls with urban ecovillages and natural park space.

12.  Create or retrofit homes as restorative habitats for humans and other species.

13.  Design and retrofit schools and libraries with biophilic design; and green every schoolyard.

14.  Apply biophilic design to new housing and commercial developments.

15.  Weave nature into communities for older people, including assisted living homes.

16.  Create restorative workplaces that produce human energy.

17.  Encourage urban and suburban agriculture, from community gardens to vertical farms.

18.  Recognize and celebrate your urban bioregion’s natural identity.

19.  Establish a regional scorecard that includes the economic benefits of truly greening your city.

20.  Support a regional children and nature campaign; and help build the New Nature Movement.

21.  Focus your city’s future envisioning process through the prism of nature: consider how planting the restorative city could reshape healthcare, education, law enforcement, redevelopment, tourism, and other businesses.

Richard Louv is the author of  THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,  now available in paperback. He is chairman emeritus of the Children and Nature Network and 2012 spokesperson for the CLIF Kid Backyard Game of the Year. For more information on his books, go to www.richardlouv.com. For a free online Field Guide to the New Nature Movement, see http://richardlouv.com/books/nature-principle/field-guide/.

 

 

Apr 25 | Richard Louv :: Applying the Nature Principle to Your Life

By Athlete Parents

Nature-Smart Jobs for the Future (and Right Now), Part II

Want to make a decent living and a better life? Here’s one way. Get a job – a nature-smart job. Or better yet, be a nature-smart entrepreneur. By that, I don’t mean a career devoted only to energy efficiency. That’s important, but there’s a whole new category of green jobs coming. These careers and avocations will help children and adults become happier, healthier, and smarter, by truly greening where people live, work, learn, and play. Here are a few examples.

 

• New agrarians. Who are they? Urban farmers who design and operate community gardens. Designers and operators of vertical farms in high-rise buildings. Organic farmers and innovative vanguard ranchers who use sophisticated organic practices to produce food. The focus is on local, family-scale sustainable food, fiber, and fuel production in, near, and beyond cities.

• Natural health service. Ecopsychologists—Wilderness therapy professionals—are going mainstream. Some pediatricians are now prescribing or recommending “green exercise” in parks and other natural settings for their young patients and their families. Hospitals, mental health centers, and nursing home are creating healing gardens. The Portland, Oregon, parks department partners with physicians who send families to local parks, where park rangers serve as health para profesionals. In the U.K., a growing “green care” movement encourages therapeutic horticulture, ecotherapy, and green-care farming.

• Green exercise trainers. Exercising indoors and outdoors seems to produce different results. Even when the same number of calories are burned. Outside exercise appears to have better results, especially for psychological well-being. Green exercise trainers can help individuals and families individually or by organizing “green gyms” and family nature clubs. “People walkers” can help the elderly take a hike.

• Natural teachers. As parents and educators learn more about the brain-stimulating power of learning in natural settings, demand will increase for nature-based schools and nature-based experiential learning, providing new opportunities for natural teachers and natural-playscape and school-garden designers.

• Bioregional guides. We’ll see the emergence of citizen naturalists who, as professionals or volunteers, help people get to know where they live. One organization, Exploring a Sense of Place, in the San Francisco Bay Area, guides groups that want to have a deeper understanding of the life surrounding them. Think of these guides as nature-smart welcome wagons that help us develop a deeper sense of personal and local identity.

The list of possible careers can go on. Stream restorers, law-enforcement officials who use nature for crime prevention and improved prison recidivism, specialists in nature-based geriatric services. Once the entrepreneurial spirit kicks in, it’s easy to start thinking of products and services. And when people begin to consider the career possibilities of human restoration through nature, their eyes light up: here is a positive, hopeful view of the human relationship with the Earth, a way to make a living and a life.

 

Richard Louv is the author of “THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,” now available in paperback, from which this piece is adapted. He is Chairman Emeritus of The Children and Nature Network and 2012 spokesperson for the CLIF Kid Backyard Game of the Year. For more information on his books, go to http://www.richardlouv.com. For a free online Field Guide to the New Nature Movement, see http://richardlouv.com/books/nature-principle/field-guide/.

 

 

Apr 18 | richard louv :: Applying the Nature Principle to Your Life

By Athlete Parents

Nature-Smart Jobs for the Future (and Right Now), Part I

Want to make a decent living and a better life? Here’s one way. Get a job – a nature-smart job. Or better yet, be a nature-smart entrepreneur. By that, I don’t mean a career devoted only to energy efficiency. That’s important, but there’s a whole new category of green jobs coming. These careers and avocations will help children and adults become happier, healthier, and smarter, by truly greening where people live, work, learn, and play. Here are a few examples.

• Nature-smart workplace architects and designers. Studies of workplaces that have been created or retrofitted through biophilic (love of nature) design show improved product quality, customer satisfaction, and innovation. Successful models include the Herman Miller headquarters building, designed for abundant natural light, indoor plants, and outdoor views, including views of a restored wetlands and prairie on company grounds. After moving into the building, 75 percent of day-shift office workers said they considered the building healthier, and 38 percent said their job satisfaction had improved.

• Restorative employee health and productivity specialists. To reduce employee stress and boost morale, companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Sunset magazine promote on-site organic vegetable gardens. The aircraft manufacturer Airbus now uses wilderness retreats as a reflective catalyst for leadership training. At least one company offers weeklong nature camps for adults who need to recharge their physical, emotional, and intellectual batteries.

• Nature-smart residential builders. They’ll specialize in window appeal (the view of nature from inside the home)—not just curb appeal. They’ll know how to place a new house in sync with the sun’s movements, use local materials to reflect the nature and history of the region, install a super insulated green roof that can last eighty years, design for natural air-conditioning, and weave nature in homes and offices in even the most crowded urban neighborhoods.

• Nature-smart yard and garden specialists will help homeowners and businesses reduce traditional lawns and replace them with bird-attracting native vegetation, butterfly gardens, chlorine-free natural swimming ponds, organic vegetable gardens, beehives, and places to raise chickens and ducks and gather eggs. As local governments continue to loosen regulations on yard farming, and as nearby production of food becomes more important, this specialty will become more popular.

• Urban wildscapers. Urban designers and other professionals who create or redevelop neighborhoods that connect people to nature through the creation of biophilically-designed buildings and preservation of natural land will be increasingly in demand. They will design and establish  biodiverse parks, urban forests and community gardens, wildlife corridors and other wild lands. Seattle recently announced plans for a massive urban forest that will produce free food.

• Outside In decorators will bring the outside in, creating or improving our homes to nurture health and well-being through nature: “living walls” of vegetation that purify air; indoor vertical vegetable gardens with automatic drip-irrigation systems; biophilic decorations such as twig furniture; fluorescent lights that adjust throughout the day via light sensors at the windows; bird-warning elements for windows; indoor water gardens and other living features. So will individual homeowners decorating their own homes. This goes way beyond feng shui.

The list of possible careers can go on. Stream restorers, law-enforcement officials who use nature for crime prevention and improved prison recidivism, specialists in nature-based geriatric services. Once the entrepreneurial spirit kicks in, it’s easy to start thinking of products and services. And when people begin to consider the career possibilities of human restoration through nature, their eyes light up: here is a positive, hopeful view of the human relationship with the Earth, a way to make a living and a life. 

Richard Louv is the author of “THE NATURE PRINCIPLE: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age,” now available in paperback, from which this piece is adapted. He is Chairman Emeritus of The Children and Nature Network and 2012 spokesperson for the CLIF Kid Backyard Game of the Year. For more information on his books, go to http://www.richardlouv.com. For a free online Field Guide to the New Nature Movement, see http://richardlouv.com/books/nature-principle/field-guide/.