Hey guys. My job recently got a campaign from the Ad Council(We're a marketing company). In some research they did they came up with the figure that stated that kids today spend about 50% less time outdoors than they did about 20 years ago(when I was a kid).

This had me surprised as I enjoy wildlife and I try to engender appreciation of the outdoors in my kids, though in the past few years I have been scaling back a bit.

The Forest Service has a great campaign going on called "Where the Other You Lives" which is designed to get kids and parents outdoors more often. The website they have set up is pretty useful for parents who want to find activities to keep their kids active. The site can be found here: http://youcastcorp.com/discovertheforestlink

What do you guys do to keep your kids active?

We go camping throughout the year -in summer we are gone for 3 weeks in a tent so no electrical hook ups! The kids get minimal electronic time unless we are driving long distances. We also camp over thanksgiving, spring break and sometimes winter break. Recently we have started taking the kids backpacking!

Old Granddad belatedly weighs (too much) in on the subject:

A lot of kids these days may be kept in by their parents simply because it's nowhere near as safe a world as it was say, forty or fifty years ago. We used to go across the street to a big park and play all day, only coming home for lunch and dinner. Not a worry in the world about perverts or gangs or drugs or such like. No more. It's a much scarier world out there in which to raise kids.

One way to give kids increased exposure to outdoor activities is to get them involved in Scouting or similar organizations. Recent scandals notwithstanding (where were those kids' parents, anyway?), they're top notch outfits for kids. My son's troop went camping once every month, no matter what the weather (well, I was a lot younger, then, too). My sister is still very active in district activities for the GSA at the age of 67. My other sister never fails to break into some of those inane summer camp songs (ahhh, Camp Wind Mountain) when she wants to get on my nerves.

You know the drill. Of course, I have no tricks for getting on her nerves. Nope. Not me. Uh uh.