I've met Ken Keffer and Stacy Tornio along the bird festival circuit and they're great people. Stacey is editor of Birds & Blooms Magazine and Ken is a "vagabond naturalist who also writes for Birds & Blooms. I recently worked on a project with Ken and we were sharing that we both have a book coming out.

Ken and Stacey have come up with a really cool book. It's essentially an outdoor bucket list for kids. It's also tied in with a really cool website called Destination Nature full of more projects and videos to go along with the book. There are 448 fun activities for any time of year for families to try.

The book has great ideas for kids to try (especially for a parent who would like to get them outdoors and doesn't know where to start) and each activity is rated on an "Adventure Scale." Making a wish on a dandelion is a low key, easy activity so it gets a 1. Harvesting honey is a bit more risky so it gets a 5. Some of the activities involve travel, ie collecting seashells on the beach but others can be done right in a backyard--even an urban one. I think what will make this book fun is that there are a lot of outdoor activities that parents may want to try try themselves. They can use their kids to live out some of the things they haven't had a chance to do yet. Use your kids as your own personal field trip leader!

The book is divided into the four seasons and includes some games too and how to mix them up for the outdoors. Yes, Minnesota people, they did include the note that some regions prefer the game Duck, Duck, Gray Duck.

So if you are looking for a way to encourage your indoor kids to play outdoors, try giving them this book, the structure of checking off adventures is appealing and maybe you'll find some adventure too.