{"id":6904,"date":"2016-06-13T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T08:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/?p=6904"},"modified":"2026-01-05T10:37:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T14:37:35","slug":"hands-of-the-future-sharing-the-love-of-nature-with-future-generations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/hands-of-the-future-sharing-the-love-of-nature-with-future-generations\/","title":{"rendered":"Hands of the Future – Sharing the Love of Nature With Future Generations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hands<\/a>Children today spend an average of 20 minutes outside. Since the dawn of television, video games, and other indoor activities, children are spending more and more of their time indoors and missing out on the many benefits of interacting with nature. Various studies have shown that engaging with nature improves\u00a0concentration, coordination, creativity, and more. Hands of the Future, Inc. is a nonprofit organization started\u00a0to educate children about the beauty of nature and help them connect with it.<\/p>\n

Hands of the Future, Inc. has several programs for kids\u00a0to get involved with. The Junior Nature Club is a free after school program for\u00a0children in pre-kindergarten through the eighth grade that meets every three weeks to learn about nature through games, crafts, and other activities. \u00a0The Living Schoolyard Program is a partnership with Indiana schools bringing bits of nature to schools in the forms of “outdoor classrooms” like butterfly gardens and raised bed veggie gardens. A Children’s Forest is even being discussed as Hands of the Future, Inc. becomes more and more successful.<\/p>\n

For summer fun sign up for Hands of the Future program! Registration is free.<\/p>\n

Volunteers & Interns:<\/strong>
\nOlder students and adults can apply to be a volunteer. Volunteers are always appreciated, no past experience necessary. If you love nature and kids you will enjoy this program. Internships are available for college students, contact Zonda Bryant.<\/p>\n

This month’s Junior Nature Club theme is soil, and is taking place on June 21st for pre-kindergarteners to second graders, June 23rd for third to fifth graders, and June 28th for sixth to eighth graders at the Lilly Nature Center at Celery Bog<\/a>. Look forward to upcoming themes including “Monarch Madness” and “Floating on Air!”<\/p>\n

For more information, please check out the Hands of Future, Inc.\u00a0and Junior Nature Club websites listed below.<\/p>\n

Resources:<\/strong>
\nPK-12 Programs<\/a> – Purdue FNR Extension<\/p>\n

Zonda Bryant, Director
\n765.366.9126
\ndirector@hands-future.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Purdue Extension Contact:
\nRebecca Busse, Extension Associate
\nPurdue Department of Forestry and Natural Resources
\nbusser@purdue.edu <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children today spend an average of 20 minutes outside. Since the dawn of television, video games, and other indoor activities, children are spending more and more of their time indoors and missing out on the many benefits of interacting with nature. Various studies have shown that engaging with nature improves\u00a0concentration, coordination, creativity, and more. Hands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,44,54],"tags":[323,324,211,325],"class_list":["post-6904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forestry","category-gotnatureforkids","category-wildlife","tag-hands-of-the-future","tag-junior-nature-club","tag-k12","tag-nature","audience-for-enthusiasts"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 20:42:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6904"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35207,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6904\/revisions\/35207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}