The best way for you and your family to enjoy the environment is to experience it. Here are a few ideas to get you started. Have fun!

• Celebrate National Wildlife Week with the National Wildlife Federation
• Take a hike, using these kid-friendly tips from the American Hiking Society. Find a trail near you here.
• Want to relax after your hike with a good movie? Try The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, The Lorax, Duma, Fly Away Home, March of the Penguins, Never Cry Wolf, and The Story of the Weeping Camel.
• Bike a "Rail-Trail." Find one near you here.
• Sign up with the Sierra Club Family Outings program. For a vacation your family will remember forever, go camping at Cinnamon Bay Campground in the U.S. Virgin Islands (I speak from experience.).
• Join the National Audubon Society's Great Backyard Bird Count.
• Create wildlife habitat in your very own backyard. National Wildlife Federation shows you how.
• Scribble, draw, write. Just take a paper and a pen or colored pencils and crayons and plop down on your favorite park bench. Let nature.and your hands.take their course.
• Stuck in the city? Picnic in the nearest park, stroll through the botanic gardens, enroll in the community garden.

Want more ideas? Sign up for a monthly e-newsletter of fun nature activities designed especially for parents and kids, from the folks who bring you Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard.