Nature for the whole family
By Danny Bernstein • Guest columnist
When I first thought about taking my granddaughter, Hannah, on an outdoor experience, I looked at various intergenerational offerings but realized that she and I would be doing the same activities.
When we started this adventure together — no parents were involved — she was only 7 years old. I’m an active hiker. That meant that if she hiked 4 miles, I would only hike 4 miles for the day; that is, if the group even walked that far. But at Family Nature Summits, the whole family doesn’t do the same thing. That’s what is so appealing. Like traditional summer camp, each person goes with her own age group during the day.
This is how it works:
After breakfast, I drop Hannah to her Junior Naturalist group where her counselors are elementary school science educators. This past year at Asilomar State Park in California, kids hiked, explored tide pools, learned how to use a map and compass and had a chance to paint on the beach. Older children went camping. Steve Houser, a teacher of gifted elementary school children near Charlotte, has been directing the Summit’s Junior Naturalist program for 30 years.
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“I hope that the Summits pass on environmental education to the next generation,” Steve explained. “It’s an opportunity to spend a week with those who care about the environment. The children support each other in something as simple as recycling. Here they’re being exposed to high-caliber people in the natural world and renew acquaintances as well.”
While Hannah is with her age group, I’m with mine. Over my years in Family Nature Summits, I’ve gone tide pooling at 6 a.m. in Asilomar, joined a birding trip as a very incidental birder in Lake Tahoe, caved in the Ozarks, kayaked in Maine and gone up to the tundra in Rocky Mountains National Park. And I did a lot of hiking. The Summits are a bit of a fantasyland, with more activities than you could do in a month, great people and comfortable surroundings.
At 3:30 p.m., the formal programs end. Older children run around, organizing informal games in a very safe environment. If the parents aren’t back from their activities, younger ones may move to “daycare,” where fun continues. After dinner, we join the evening program: square dancing, a program by a bird rescue group or a slide show on flowers of the area. The last night is always skit night. All the groups, from the preschoolers to the college students, put on a short program — this is camp, after all.
This year, I’m taking Isabelle, Hannah’s younger sister, who is now in kindergarten. Hannah recalls, “My favorite thing about Family Summits is the people and the places we go. It is always fun to hike with people you know and you can talk with. I hope my sister who is joining this year can have as much fun as I am having!”
Editor’s note: Asheville hiking guide and author Danny Bernstein is a fan of Family Nature Summits — weeklong experiences that provide age-appropriate outdoor excursions for each member of the family — as a way to discover nature with her granddaughter in locations across the country. Here, she shares her experiences from past Family Nature Summits in anticipation of the 2015 Summit, to be held at Lake Junaluska.
