Older explorers aged 7–12 can subscribe to Ranger Rick’s Tree House, an app that invites kids to explore Ranger Rick’s tree house home, a place filled with intriguing rooms and all kinds of wildlife fun.

Still not convinced? Here are five great reasons to get your paws on these apps:

Left: Ranger Rick Jr. Appventures; Right: Ranger Rick’s Tree House

1. They’re on sale right now for Earth Day

This one’s a no brainer. Since Ranger Rick is Earth’s best friend, we’re celebrating his favorite holiday with a sale on his apps. Both Tree House and Appventures are 60% off all week long, from April 22–29. That means they’re $1.99 instead of $4.99! See, I told you, no brainer.

2. They teach kids about animals and nature

If your kids are fascinated by the animals on the pages of the magazines, they’ll love all the ways that animals come alive in our apps.

In Appventures: Lions, kids discover videos, photos, animation, and illustrated factoids as they wind their way through a tale about lions told by their friendly guides, Lars and Ricky. It’s impossible to get bored when there’s so much to explore. In the Tree House, the experience of reading a fascinating Ranger Rick adventure story gets even richer. Wildlife articles spring to life with eye-popping photos, clickable facts, funny animations, wildlife sounds, and more.

A scene from the interactive photo story in Appventures: Lions

3. They encourage kids to get outside

Kids can open the back door of the Tree House to find ideas for nature crafts and outdoor activities. They can even log the time they spend outside in their own backyards. And Appventures will get kids so excited about wildlife that they’ll want to embark on a safari in their own backyard!

The backyard in Ranger Rick’s Tree House app

4. They’re winning raves

Appventures was named one of the top 10 kids’ apps of 2012 by Entertainment Weekly and earned a silver medal from the Parents’ Choice Foundation. Bloggers like Geeks with Juniors love the fun and innovative way that Appventures presents educational content and teaches kids about nature.

Parents’ Choice named Tree House a recommended mobile app, and the bloggers at Dandelion Moms said “no other digital children’s magazine is more innovative, interactive, or just plain fun!”

5. They’re FUN!

Do you want to compose a tune with the soothing sounds of a lion roaring and an elephant trumpeting? Or create an animal with a cheetah’s tail, zebra’s body, and giraffe’s neck and head? The answer is yes, of course, and with Appventures you can do that and have a lot of other silly animal fun. You can even go on a photo safari: pick up the iPad and move it all around to snap shots of all the lions in the pride.

For more of a challenge, stop into the Tree House and play games like Ribbit Rodeo, where you lasso up a tasty meal of bugs for a hungry frog, or Manta Mission, where you help Manta Ray race through underwater roadblocks to get to the Manta Party on time. You can also venture into the “bFunny” room to laugh at comic gems like, “What do kangaroos eat for breakfast?” (Pouched eggs.)

Left: The “Make an Animal” game from Appventures; Right: “Ribbit Rodeo” game from Tree House

We’ve also teamed up with some great bloggers who are giving away download codes for the apps. Head over for your chance to win:

• Mommy Maestra
• Wee Share
• Babies Gotta Have It

Thanks to all the bloggers who have already reviewed our apps and hosted awesome giveaways!

• Momma D Jane
• Inspired by Savannah
• The IE Mommy
• 5 Minutes for Books
• Special Needs Orange County
• For Kids Entertainment
• Dandelion Moms
• iGameMom
• the iPhone mom
• Crafty Garden Mama
• Raising Them Green
• Curriculum Choice
• iHeartThisApp
• Geeks with Juniors
• BabyCenter
• NBC Latino

Every month we publish five or six drawings or photos from our readers in the “Ricky’s Mail” section of Ranger Rick Jr. Ricky is a playful young raccoon who guides kids through the pages of the magazine, and he loves to get mail! We also feature reader mail in a monthly slideshow on our website.

Since our readers love sending us drawings, and we love our readers, we decided to hold a “Draw Ricky” contest for these talented young artists. So send us your best drawing of your favorite little raccoon, Ricky! The winning drawings will be featured in the October issue of Ranger Rick Jr., and the winning artists will receive a Ranger Rick Jr. baseball cap. We’ll also send the winners six complimentary copies of the October issue, so they can share their artistic debut with their family and friends.

Even if your drawing isn’t published in the magazine, there’s still a chance for fame (but maybe not fortune). We’ll be featuring many more of our favorite Ricky drawings on Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr. Be sure to follow us to see all the drawings and get updates about the contest!

How to Enter

Drawing of Ricky by Julia

I want apps with the following qualities:

• Appealing to my kids – They want to interact with it.
• Appropriate reading – The reading level works for a six-year-old and a nine-year-old.
• Good wildlife content – After they play, they have new information about wildlife.
• Inspirational – After they play, this app comes up in conversation. They build on the concepts they learned either in their art or creative play.

We tested apps on an iPad2.

Meet Nora and Russell

Their profiles might help you know which games would appeal to your kids.

Nora is nine. Nora enjoys playing outside. She knows every inch of the stream behind our house. She wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up. She has phone calls with her cousin where they exchange interesting fish facts. In Ranger Rick and Ranger Rick Jr. magazines, she wants to read the animal articles and jokes. Nora prefers apps where she learns about animals and creates a world for them to live in.

Russell is six. He does not go outside to play on his own steam, although once he is outside, he loves to climb trees and act out dramas with his sister and friends. In Ranger Rick and Ranger Rick Jr. magazines, he goes for the games and jokes.  Russell prefers apps that test his skill with the device, such as how fast can he move through a virtual world. He is a good reader for his age, but would rather explore a game through trial and error than by reading. He likes learning the rules and explaining them in detail to the rest of the family.

Even though they have different interests, they often like to look at apps together. So the best apps make sense to both their learning styles and reading levels.

Our Favorite Kid-Friendly Nature and Wildlife Apps

I searched for “best kids nature apps” and most apps I found did not teach about wildlife or nature. Most had a cute animal as the main character teaching how to read, do math or make art. While those are great goals, I was looking specifically for apps that increased my kids’ knowledge of wildlife and nature.

These apps reward you for learning facts about animals or nature. They usually require the ability to read.

These apps are listed in alphabetical order.

Click the Birdie – This is a National Wildlife Federation app where you take photos of birds in various habitats to fill out your scrapbook. I don’t feel I can rate this app because it was made by my family! I say my family because my husband coded the app, and kids tested it every step of the way. Of course we love this app, but check it out for yourself! The little girl in the Southwest habitat is named Nora in honor of our Nora. This app costs $0.99.

Click the Birdie app – “Nora” in the Southwest

Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence – I thought my fish-loving daughter might enjoy this app, even though it is not particularly designed for children. It is about a exhibition that was at the American Museum of Natural History. My guess was correct. The subject matter caught her attention, and while slideshows or video of typical animals would not interest her, we are talking about species that glow in the dark! She also liked the video about how they made the models for the museum exhibit. This app is free.

Meet the Insects: Forest Edition – Did I mention how much my daughter loves bugs? This app looks quite formal and a bit like a text book, but I have a daughter whose favorite books are field guides, so she loved it. We joked that most of the videos show males fighting over females because hey, what else could you videotape about an insect’s life and keep audiences interested? We loved the style which is a mix of cartoon and realistic art. Nora commented more than once, “These are really nice pictures.” She made the insect videos more exciting by adding her own dialogue. Russell was not interested in this one. This app cost $3.99.

A sample screen from the app “Meet the Insects”

Nature Tap – You are shown four species. Then you hear a bird call and you guess which bird is making the sound. With the insect module, you are shown the name of an insect, and you have to guess which insect matches the name. My daughter loved this app and wanted me to buy a lot more modules. The bird module is free and the insect module is free if you register. Other modules cost $1.99 or $2.99 each.

A girl playing the app “Nature Tap” on her iPad

Ranger Rick’s Appventures – What I find with most kid-oriented apps is that they contain one game or one concept, and so the kids “get it” quickly. What’s different about Appventures (and Tree House, below) is that they are multi-layered apps. It takes time to find all the parts. So the first time they each visited these apps, they looked around quickly, played one game and left. But what I found was each time they opened this app, they discovered a new thing. My son’s favorite parts were the puzzle utility, where you can put together simple or complex puzzles made from animal photos. He also liked the game which was like Photo Safari where you look through a habitat for animals and take photos of them. You hold your iPad with two hands and tilt it to see all sorts of nooks and crannies in the lion’s habitat. I won’t spill the beans, but make sure you look up in the sky when playing this game. Nora’s experience was different because really this app is designed for children younger than her. But what I found was that she enjoyed this app when playing with her brother. She would make him laugh by acting out dramas on the Sticker page or adding color commentary to the music area (where the keyboard keys sound like a lion, elephant or baboon.) This app brought my kids together. This app costs $4.99. This app is made by National Wildlife Federation.

Ranger Rick’s Appventures app

Ranger Rick’s Treehouse - Nora liked the dolphin book where she could learn facts and get more wildlife jokes. She also liked the outdoor time journal in the backyard area, recording all her outdoor time with the goal of earning a badge. She liked that at the end of the leopard game, the leopard finds its kitten. My son liked the dolphin flip game, especially when it got up to the two and three dolphins at one time. For some reason, my son found the video of the “dancing wallabies” to be completely hilarious and proceeded to watch it about twenty times. There is a free version of the app as an intro. Then this app costs $4.99 for one issue or $19.99 for an annual subscription that sends new content quarterly.

Ranger Rick Treehouse app

Survival - There are a lot of apps called Survival, so when you are searching, look for the one with the icon of the orange frog. You answer quiz questions about animals in rapid succession. The longer you “survive,” i.e. answer correctly, the more photos of an endangered species you get to see at the end. It takes practice because the method of answering the questions changes from one question to the next. At first, it was too difficult for my son, but he liked the bright colors and competing against his dad to survive longer. My daughter struggled with the “pinch” feature which is one way of answering questions, but figured it out. You really learn a lot about wildlife facts with this app, and you learn to answer fast! This app is free.

Survival app – sample screen

Tick Bait’s Universe – I would not have guessed that my kids would enjoy this app because it seems like too simple of a concept. However, it was recommended by Warren Buckleitner who reviews children’s apps, so I downloaded the free version. The app starts with a dog named “Tick Bait” and you can zoom in on his skin or out to outerspace. In the free version, you get to zoom about 13 levels, and with the paid version, you get more levels. The graphics are all hand drawn, not photographs. My kids got really excited about this app, even though it required lots of reading. This app is free and the paid version costs $4.99.

Tick Bait’s Universe App

Weird But True – Not all the facts in this app are about wildlife or nature, but many are. You are shown one interesting fact after another, and you rate how weird you find the fact. One bummer about this app is that every time you start it, it shows you the same facts. It is free and made by National Geographic.

Weird But True app

Which Wildlife and Nature Apps Does Your Family Enjoy?

We’d love to hear about your experiences with these apps or others. Of course nothing connects children with nature and wildlife more than time outside, so be sure to balance your screen time and green time today.

Update on March 7:

Check out our next app review blog – Apps where you get to pretend to be animals or naturalists – LIVE like wildlife in these apps!

Kids have sharp eyes. It’s hard to sneak anything past them!

So, if you know a child who loves National Wildlife Federation’s magazine for 4-to-7 year olds, they probably have already noticed that Your Big Backyard® has changed its name.

New name = Big Backyard®! Ta-daa!

We’ve updated our look but Big Backyard has the same great features:

• Ricky and Pals Adventure Stories
• My Little Book
• The Family Fun Guide for Parents
• A poster in every issue
• And of course TONS of eye-popping animal photos

We hope you like the new name and logo as much as we do! Find out how to subscribe to Big Backyard and the other magazines in the Ranger Rick® family.

Also, “like” us on Facebook and get activities, crafts, and other fun stuff for the 4- to 7-year-old kids in your life. (Or for yourself! Don’t worry, no one will know that you secretly made the Gnu puppet at work.)

And tell us what you think of the new logo!

No surprise that this enduring nature publication has won yet another award—K-5 periodical of the year! The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) honored National Wildlife Federation’s publications with a total of eight awards this year, for design, stories and articles.

Ranger Rick, published for ages 7-12 since January 1967, was also a top four finalist for the Golden Lamp award—the gold-standard for educational periodicals of all age groups.

The AEP’s annual Distinguished Achievement Awards recognize the year’s top educational products in four categories: Curriculum, Periodicals, Professional Development, and Technology & New Media.

Ranger Rick and National Wildlife Federation’s two other children’s publications, Your Big Backyard (ages 4-7) and Wild Animal Baby (ages 2-4), took home honors for outstanding content, design, photography and art.

To find out more about Ranger Rick and its sister publications, visit www.nwf.org/kids.

Visit aepweb.org to learn more about the Association of Educational Publishers.

Terry admits, “I loved this assignment because it gave me the opportunity to talk to some very cool people and to learn a lot about what they do.”

It’s All About the Animals

What Terry discovered as she spoke with these folks was how much they respect the animals they work with–and how at times these animals seem to show very “human” traits.

Who Knew Whales Could Be Cranky?

For instance, one of the people featured in the article was Lynn Schraber, Senior Animal Trainer at SeaWorld in Florida. Lynn told Terry that, just as in any human classroom, some whales are very easy to train. Others are hyperactive with short attention spans, and take more patience to work with. Lynn also said that sometimes whales can get cranky and refuse to cooperate with their trainers. Wisely, the trainers then leave them alone or give them really simple things to do.

. . . and Penguins Were Curious?

Another person Terry interviewed was National Geographic Marine Biologist and Crittercam-inventor, Greg Marshall. Greg loves penguins, partly because they are so curious. Once he dived into a sea where there wasn’t a penguin in sight. But before long, lots of these birds seemed to just materialize out of nowhere and soon surrounded him. They appeared to be trying to figure out what kind of creature he was and what he was doing in their underwater world.

Dogs Sometimes Need a Whisperer

Terry also spoke with Cesar Millan, a dog behaviorist with his own TV show, “Dog Whisperer.” Cesar regularly gets called in to work with dogs that may be fearful, shy, compulsive, jealous, or aggressive–sort of like people. Cesar shows dog owners how to correct behavior problems by taking charge in a calm and assertive manner.

Cesar told Terry that he never went to dog-training school to learn what he knows. Instead, he picked it up on his own–by observing the 10-dog pack his grandpa had. He also acquired knowledge by starting out as a dog walker years ago.

See for Yourself–the Wonders of Animals!

But wait! You don’t have to be an animal expert to enjoy the creatures in your life. Why not go outside with your children and quietly notice the nearby wildlife. What are squirrels doing this time of year? When does a fox pass through your yard or the nearby park, or at what time of day do deer come by? You get the idea.

While you’re at it, why not study the behavior of your pets more closely, too. How many different ways does your dog use its tail or its ears to express itself? What part of its body does your cat groom first?

Maybe you and your family will discover, as Terry’s subjects have long known, that it’s our connection to our animal brothers and sisters that enriches our everyday lives and brings us joy.

Libby Schleichert is a Senior Editor at Ranger Rick magazine. Follow her as @EPSchleichert on Twitter.

We can’t say enough about the unbelievably inspiring and beautiful photos–and can’t wait to judge the 2009 contest, which comes to a close July 20th (11 DAYS!).

We recently read through some of the great stories that were submitted with the photos, and noticed some fun trends.

10 Lessons Learned About Wildlife and Nature Photography from the National Wildlife Photo Contest:

1. Family members both help and hinder in the creative process.
2. Photographers love the thrill of the perfect moment and rare sights.
3. Photography can be a long-term commitment.
4. Photographers push themselves physically.
5. Photography teaches about nature.
6. Animals sometimes respond to photographers.
7. Photographers make us want to travel to amazing places.
8. Photography is not always glamorous.
9. Photography can be therapeutic.
10. Photography can be poetic and moving.

Read some of the stories we dug up, as well as the photos that inspired them…

Think you have a photo and story to match? Enter the 2009 Photo Contest by July 20, 2009!

Cash prizes total $25,000. You can submit up to 20 images in seven categories in professional, amateur and youth divisions. Winning images will be published online in NWF’s PhotoZone and a selection of the winners will also be published in the December 2009 issue of National Wildlife® magazine.

Of course, like any job, mine is not—are you ready for this?—always blissful. There are days of writers’ blocks, of difficulties getting a story wrapped up, of dealing with blunt criticism. Still, working on this wonderful magazine often does seem like a dream-come-true.

My favorite day on the job?

I’d have to say it was the time I got to hang out with elephants.

(photo by aprilandrandy)

I was writing a story about Marie Galloway, the elephant keeper at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Since I live maybe 20 miles from the zoo, it made sense for me to go there and interview Marie in person and get a feel for what the life of an elephant keeper was like. I had known Marie via our email correspondence for nearly 10 years, but had never met her in person before. She had always responded cordially to various elephant questions I had sent her. So I was looking forward to finally meeting her.

Marie couldn’t have been more cordial or forthcoming. She greeted me upon my arrival and took me immediately to meet the zoo’s three Asian elephants—two “girls,” Shanthi and Ambika, and Shanthi’s son, Kandula. My first impression of the animals? They were large–very, very LARGE. (An Asian elephant can weigh up to 11,000 pounds!)

Marie then got busy giving the elephants their morning baths. She demonstrated how well trained each was, knowing how to follow her commands to roll over, lift up their feet, one by one, and generally comply with the whole bathing-grooming gig.

As the morning went on, I learned some fascinating tidbits about Marie’s charges. For instance, Ambika is a 60-year-old female, one of the oldest Asian elephants in the country. Her trunk and ears are dappled pink, something that happens to elephants as they age (like our hair turning gray).

And Marie related a story that demonstrated how the herd has adopted her as one of their own and watches out for her. One time, a while back, a helicopter flew distressingly low over the zoo. “The next thing you know,” commented Marie, “I found myself inside a protective circle of elephants, a place usually reserved for calves.” Obviously, the elephants weren’t going to let any harm come to their favorite human!

Later in the day, while I was in the exercise yard with Marie and the two “girls,” she turned to me and asked, “Would you like to pat Ambika and Shanthi?

I said, “Sure.”

She beckoned me to come over and urged me to pat the elephants by their ears. Boy, was their skin ever wrinkled and leathery to the touch! (Hmm, baby oil, anyone?) Soon afterward, Shanthi uncurled her trunk and waved it in front of my face. Marie explained, “Shanti is sniffing your breath. It’s her way of trying to figure out, ‘Do I know you? Have we met?’”

That made me smile. Being sniffed by an elephant had to be one of the coolest experiences of my life. And working at Ranger Rick, on days like this one, that ranks pretty high in my book, too.

Libby Schleichert is a Senior Editor at Ranger Rick magazine. Follow her as @EPSchleichert on Twitter.

Now, more than 40 years later, these recipes do more than give us great eats. They show us the simple, enriching qualities of camping are timeless. Served up here with more than a bit of nostalgia, whether you’re cooking on top of a fire, a griddle or a gas grill, these foods are sure to please. (But don’t forget the fruits and veggies.) Enjoy!

You can also check out more recipes and camping tips on NWF’s Great American Backyard Campout website.

Eight Classic Recipes Every Camp Cook Should Know
By Bradford Angier

“Most of us go camping to have a good time,” Colonel Townsend Whelen, for years the dean of the outdoor writers, was telling me just a few months ago. “If the food is poor, unwholesome, or not what we crave, we have a continual grouch. If it is excellent and there is plenty of it, everything is rosy. Good food even makes up for rain and hard beds. Good fellowship is at its best around good meals.

“The best thing about all this,” Colonel Whelen went on to say, “is that knowing how to cook eight basic foods well will make anyone a better than passable camp cook.” The eight? Fish, steak, eggs, bacon, potatoes, frypan bread, flapjacks, and coffee.

Like the late colonel, I’ve also made these the mainstays of my outdoor cookery in the silent corners of this continent. It would be difficult to name eight other staples whose mastery could so enhance the friendly
flicker of open flames and the added relish of boon companionship under open skies.

About the only cooking odors that even approach the fresh aroma of fish frying outdoors are the sizzling smell of good grilled bacon, coffee bubbling in the heat of a campfire, and frypan bread browning over the evening’s apple-red coals. This is a fine thing, for all fish are eminently suitable for frying.

1. FISH

To keep the catch moist and tender, and to bring out its delicate flavor, cook only until the flesh is no longer translucent. Once the fish is easily flaked, it is done. The taste will be further enhanced if the fish is salted, inside and out, an hour in advance of frying. Or sprinkle the inside with pepper and lemon juice just before it goes on the heat. Best final topping? Good fresh butter.

Lightly fried fish is hard to beat when it comes to fillets, steaks and small catches. Open and clean the latter soon after landing. Unless you object, leave on the head and certainly the tail where, in that order, lie the sweetest meats. Keep dry, cool, and well ventilated.

Get the frypan or griddle just hot enough that its enrichment of butter or margarine barely begins to tan. Roll the fish in crumbs, flour, or corn meal if you want, although many of us prefer the rich crispy skin unadorned. Brown on both sides, only until flaky. Then add any desired salt, butter, and perhaps a few drops of lemon juice. When one ridge after another is lifting in front of the water-reflected sun as you eat, and a breeze is starting to trumpet a cool blue note, this is camp food you’re never going to forget.

2. STEAK

Steak, for my money, is the best and most traditional outdoor food America has to provide. If you can, cook a one-pound boneless sirloin, two inches thick, for each member of the party. Porter-house and T-bones are tops this way, too, especially if also corn-fed and aged about a month. But almost any steak when most advantageously prepared and cooked tastes delicious out of doors.

Wipe the steaks well with a clean damp cloth. Then rub with a mixture composed of four parts of salt and one-half part of black pepper.

A good trick at the start is to get a glowing bed of coals, then to scatter on a few hardwood chips or shavings. These will flare up enough both to help seal in the juices and to assure that flavorsome char relished by so many.

In any event, if you’re using a grill, get this hot and rub it with suet. If you are using a frypan, let this also get hot, but do not add any grease and tip out any sputtering from the meat. Sear the steaks quickly on both sides. Then cook to individual tastes.

Lean meat cooks more quickly than fat meat. Aging also progressively shortens the cooking time. Then there are such factors as size, shape, and the amount of bone. Outdoor fires add another variable. A practical way to test is to prick the steak with a pointed knife. If red juice wells out, the meat is rare; pink, medium rare; colorless, overdone unless that’s the way you want it.

3. EGGS

Too much heat for too long a period is also the most common enemy of eggs. To illustrate, here’s a foolproof recipe for fried eggs that are a far cry from the leathery objects that assail digestions from coast to coast. Get one tablespoon of fat just hot enough to sizzle a test drop of water. Break in the eggs. Take the frypan immediately off the fire. Baste the eggs with the hot fat for three or four minutes, and that’s that. Salt, pep-per, and serve on a warm plate. In any event, keep the heat low so that the whites won’t get tough, and then just baste the yolks until they are well filmed. It’s easier to get them up mornings for breakfasts like this.

Scrambled eggs also go particularly well when you are cooking in the ruddy glowing warmth of wild wood back of beyond. There is a simple trick in connection with these that will make all the difference. The usual adding of milk has a tendency to toughen scrambled eggs. Instead, try putting in a tablespoon of cold water for each egg. Mix the eggs and water with salt and pepper to taste. Then heat a tablespoon of fat in a fry-pan just warm enough to sizzle a drop of water. After tipping in the egg mixture, reduce even this heat. Stir the eggs constantly with a fork once they have begun to harden. Remove them while they are still creamy and soft.

In connection with eggs, here is a nourishing and easily digestible dish, with a mild and provocatively elusive flavor, that is unusually good when someone hauls into camp late, especially as its preparation is both simple and swift. Proportions, which are flexible, may be varied in ratio to appetites. For two late arrivals, for example, brown a couple of diced onions with a little grease in a fry-pan. When these have cooked to a dark blandness, add a small can of tomatoes. Let them begin to bubble. Then break in six eggs. Season with salt and pepper.

Keep scrambling over low heat until fairly dry.

4. BACON

Too ardent heat is also the great ruiner of bacon. How often have you seen a frypan become a leaping mass of flames? The commonsense solution? Start bacon in a cold pan. Fry the bacon slowly over a few coals poked to one side of the campfire. Turn the slices occasionally. If you like them crisp, keep tipping the fat into a handy container where it can be kept for future camp use. You can almost hear the laughter of old fur brigade voyageurs when you sit down to grub like this.

5. POTATOES

Camp potatoes? A good way to cook this Native American vegetable is to bake the large ones in their skins in hot ashes, not glowing coals, until they become pretty well blackened on the outside. They’re done when a thin, sharp stick will shove easily through their middles. Rake out, break in half, and serve at once with salt and butter.

A more complicated way to go about this on occasion is to cut well scrubbed potatoes lengthwise into three slabs. Lay thin slices of onion, salted and peppered, between these sections. Then reassemble each potato, wrap in a sheet of heavy foil or several thicknesses of lightweight foil, and bake in a nest of ashes among hot coals for about a half hour or until done, turning once.

6. BREAD

Fresh frypan bread is a simple thing to cook on the trail. The handiest method is to mix the dry ingredients before leaving the base of supplies. The following basic mix, given here in one-man proportions which may be expanded to any reasonable amount, will stay fresh six weeks or more in camp if kept sealed, dry, and reasonably cool:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon double action baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of oleomargarine

If this mix is being readied at home, sift the flour before measuring it. Then sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the margarine with two knives, with an electric mixer at low speed, or with a pastry blender, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. For increased food value, add two tablespoons of powdered skim milk for every cup of flour.

Place in plastic bags. Seal with a hot iron or with one of the plastic tapes. A large quantity can be made at once, of course, and divided into smaller portions. Before using, it is a good idea to stir the mixture lightly.

If compounding this mix in camp, do it with the ingredients at hand and in the simplest way possible. Any solid shortening may be utilized if the mix is to be used within a short time. Such mix may be carried, if you want, in a glass jar or just folded in wax paper.

When the fire is going and everything else is ready, quickly add enough cold water (about 1/3 cup) to the mix to make a firm dough. Shape this rapidly into a cake about an inch thick. Lay this in a warm frypan. Hold it over moderate heat until a crust forms on the bottom, rotating the pan a bit so that the loaf will move enough not to become stuck. Once the dough has hardened enough to hold together, turn the loaf. Do this several times until the bread has baked to an appetizing brown on both sides. The frypan bread should be done in anything from fifteen minutes to a half-hour, depending on the heat which should continue to be moderate. When a twig shoved into the loaf returns without any dough adhering to it, the moment for eating hot has arrived.

7. FLAPJACKS

A lot of campers don’t reckon they’ve begun the day right until they have stoked up with a stack of moist, hot, tender flapjacks. These are so easy to prepare that there is no reason for even the lowliest greenhorn to be dependent on store mixes. They can be so wholesome and tasty, in addition, that many a vacationist will be looking ardently for more when hemmed in again by asphalt and concrete.

All you need to begin with is the same basic mix that made such delicious fry-pan bread. Again speaking in terms of the same one-man proportions, add 1/2 cup of milk, with which a whole or dried egg has been mixed, to the homemade dry mix. This milk can be diluted evaporated milk, reconstituted dry milk, etc. Stir only enough to moisten the flour.

If the flapjack batter seems a trifle too thick to pour easily, thin it with just enough milk. On the other hand, a little extra flour will provide stiffening. But if the batter is on the thin side, the flapjacks will be tenderer.

Let the frypan become hot and then wipe it sparingly with bacon rind. Do not let the metal reach smoking temperatures. Turn each hot cake only once, when it begins showing tiny bubbles. The second side will take only about half as long to cook. Serve steaming hot with your favorite topping.

8. COFFEE

What remains most vividly in the memories of many campers are those unforgettable first campfires at dawn. Because of the air currents set into motion by the blending of night and day, it’s cooler now than it was during total darkness. The cook maybe deposits an old pine stump, saved for the purpose, in the center of the fading overnight embers.

This gives him a blaze like the light of a pressure lantern, and it also helps him to get some warmth into his extended fingers. Pretty soon he’s thawed out enough to shove the coffee pot grumpily into the heat. He then begins banging pans around, a little more expressively than necessary. Further sleep soon becomes impossible. The coffee smells too good, anyway, particularly when joined by the aromas of flapjacks and bacon.

That first cup of coffee can make all the difference. The way I like to make coffee in the woods is to drop a rather coarse blend into cold fresh water. Two level tablespoons for every cup of water is just right for me, although this proportion can be varied for the weaker and stronger brews preferred by some others.

Suspend or set this over the fire. Keep a close eye on it. Once it has boiled up, lift it to a warm place where no one will be apt to stumble over it and let it take on body for five minutes. Then settle the grounds if you want with several tablespoons of cold water and let everyone know it’s time to, “Come and get it!”

As I agreed with Colonel Townsend Whelen years ago, none of us is going vacationing to spend our time cooking and eating. On the other hand, the right kind of meals will never taste better than when appetites are sharpened to a wonderful edge by healthful outdoor living. Warm your coffee, anyone?

What we found was pleasantly surprising. Over 90 percent of these young people said they enjoyed playing outdoors and reading more than any other recreational activities. Yes, that includes watching television and playing video games! Clearly, children CAN take healthy strides toward physical, emotional, and intellectual development AND have fun.

Enjoying the outdoors and reading: Those may seem like discrete activities, but there’s no reason kids can’t experience them at the same time–and double their pleasure.

Why not encourage your child to set up a chair on the lawn or climb into a backyard clubhouse, and read–several times a week? And what could be more suitable for these “outdoor reads” than an awesome book or magazine about the natural world? Below are a few of my favorites for children.

For Preschoolers (ages 3-6)

• Wild Animal Baby magazine (National Wildlife Federation)
• The 1,2,3 Bees by Nicole Wheldon (Acumon Blue Publishing)
• Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner (Chronicle Books)
• Red Rubber Boot Day by Mary Lyn Ray (Harcourt Children’s Books)
• The Surprise Garden by Zoe Hall (Scholastic Inc.)
• Waddle, Waddle, Quack, Quack, Quack by Barbara Anne Skalak (Scholastic Inc.)

For Beginning Readers (ages 6-7)

• Your Big Backyard magazine (National Wildlife Federation)
• And the Good Brown Earth by Kathy Henderson (Candlewick Press)
• Blueberry Shoe by Ann Dixon (Alaska Northwest Books)
• The Birdwatchers by Simon James (Candlewick Press)
• My Mother Talks to Trees by Doris Gove (Peachtree Publishers)
• Sunflower House by Eve Bunting (Harcourt Children’s Books)

For More Experienced Readers (ages 8 and up)

• Ranger Rick magazine (National Wildlife Federation)
• ABCs Naturally: A Child’s Guide to the Alphabet Through Nature by Lynne Diebel and Jann Kalscheur (Big Earth Publishing)
• The Daring Adventures of Penhaligon Brush by Sally Jones Rogan (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
• Growing Frogs by Vivian French (Candlewick Press)
• Take a Tree Walk by Jane Kirkland (Stillwater Publishing)
• Wild Tracks! By Jim Aronsky (Sterling)

Mary Dalheim is the Editorial Director of the National Wildlife Federation’s award-winning publications for children, including Ranger Rick.