Book Commentary #2: Outdoor Kids in an Inside World

The book I’m talking about today is Outdoor Kids in an Inside World by Steven Rinella. The subtitle of the book is “getting your family out of the house and radically engaged with nature.” I purchased this book along with two others, Mindset by Carol Dweck and Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy as the next cohort of resources to challenge my parenting instincts.

Rinella describes personal attempts to engage his children with nature and the benefits of having both a reverence for and a connection to the living environment. He’s quick to admit that it’s not necessarily the easiest way to parent as he tells about multiple setbacks and attempts that backfired, but the effort is ultimately worthwhile.

Rinella focuses on a few broad categories of activities that parents and children can do to be in nature. They include camping, foraging, gardening, fishing, and hunting. I can relate most to the practice of camping.

When I was young, I participated in Boy Scouts for a few years and earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout. I remember starting a fire for the first time after learning how to strategically place the tinder, kindling, and larger fuel ensuring the flame would thrive. I then could appreciate the fire for not only the heat in the cool, crisp evenings but also for cooking dinner and boiling water for tea. The adults made sure we understood the proper safety with fires like never leaving them unattended and always ensuring they were completely out when camp was taken down.

In the years that followed, I learned more survival skills and was able to take greater adventures. This culminated in a 100-mile hike at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. I remember climbing Mount Baldy, the highest peak on the ranch at 12,441 feet. From cold, rainy nights to hot full-sun periods hiking 10 plus miles per day with 40-50 pounds on my back, the struggle to get there in the preceding days was intense. But, the view from the summit was sublime. Never have I felt so connected with the beauty of the Earth.

Throughout the book, Rinella hits on a really important foundational element of teaching children, patience. Having the patience to allow a child to work through minor setbacks, or even to fail when the stakes are low is often much more valuable than swooping in to make sure they “do it right.” But that’s a hard thing to do. We want to see our children succeed whether it’s in reaping the most yield from the vegetable garden or reeling in the bluegill fish that’s precariously on the line. Fighting the urge to over-parent in these situations is difficult, but necessary.

I am excited to get outside with my kids and rekindle my own love of nature. From camping to gardening, I’ll teach what I know and we’ll learn the rest together.

One final note - as far as buying books, I am a hybrid purchaser. When I can, I like to purchase from The Painted Porch, an online bookshop with a physical presence in Bastrop, TX owned by author, Ryan Holiday. I also like to buy from Bookshop.org, an online bookshop that supports independent booksellers. With that said, I still order some books from Amazon, e-books on Kindle or Apple Books, or from the brick-and-mortar Barnes and Noble store in my area.

So long for now.

-Felix