Author Photo by Elise Lockwood,  L-R Susie Cameron, Caroline Webster, Katrina Crook

 

Small Fry - Inspiration for being Outdoors with Kids, is the second in the Small Fry series of books, a sequel to the successful Small Fry- Inspiration for Cooking with Kids.

Katrina and I are so lucky to have been able to collaborate with our girlfriend, Caro Webster, to produce Small Fry Outdoors. The three of us met at our local community-run health-care centre not long after the birth of our first children.  With friendships formed and sharing similar values on how to raise healthy, engaged children; it was a natural progression to work together to produce a book that aims to inspire everyone to get outside more often and enjoy everything that Mother Nature has to offer. 

Like the first book, it is loaded with simple, cost effective, but rewarding activities to share with your children.  You'll find plenty of inspiration and tips for everyone - first-time parents, grandparents and carers.  There's fun stuff to do throughout the seasons, when the weather is lousy - even if your personal patch of outdoors is tiny. 

The success of this book and the publicity we have received make us believe people are keener than ever to see their kids ditch the Nintendo and instead, spend more time playing outside in an unstructured way.  In fact, we are now sure this is the case, as Caro [make my name a link to my email again] has been asked by Today on Sunday (Channel 9, Sundays 7.00am - 10.00am) [insert link to today website]to appear regularly with advice on how to entertain and stimulate the children without a gizmo or gadget in sight!  Be sure to take a look the programme if you get the chance. 

We'd also love your feedback on the book.  [insert link].  In the meantime here are some quotes to get us all thinking about the importance of spending time outside... 

Nature does nothing uselessly.  Aristotle

 

Mother Nature is the perfect teacher, babysitter and plaything.  Caro Webster

 

The love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies.  Gertrude Jekyll

 

Children have forgotten how to do nothing and actually enjoy it.  Caro Webster

 

Spending time outside grows smarter children.  Caro Webster

 

“Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives”  Thomas Berry