Green Literacy and Green Hours

Kids need to turn off the TV and read

American children now spend more time watching TV than any other waking activity. They actually spend more time watching TV than they spend in school. And, studies that have involved more than 400,000 students have confirmed that TV hurts a child's academic performance. One thing that especially gets lost is outdoor time, but another is reading. At the National Wildlife Federation we see these two things as connected. We hope children will have one Green Hour outdoors per day and we also hope they will read more about nature -- much more. NWF has a longstanding commitment to children reading. The Non-profit organization the TV Turnoff Network agrees with us and has compiled a compelling fact sheet on literacy.

We have been doing our own research and have found the our children's maagazines Ranger Rick, Your Big Backyard and Wild Animal Baby are excellent tools for literacy and are endorsed by many of the leading literacy organizations. Our ideal -- kids read about nature and then spend time outdoors experiencing it directly -- away from the TV.