Next Step AdventureMartha helps you do, what you do, better then you did it before…

Enjoy Summer!

Posted on Monday, June 28th, 2010

It’s been just over 2 months since the first ever Iowa Outdoor Youth Summit; at least two young Iowans attended the Outdoor Nation Youth Summit and Festival in New York City, and summer is here [...]

Join the Movement

Posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Go outside! It’s spring, and Iowa is joining a broad based movement to renew a close, personal relationship with the out of doors.

April 10-11–As part of Iowa’s “Reconnecting Children with Nature” effort, the Department of [...]

Cross a Chocolate River

Posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010

This is a great team building activity I’ve used for many years. Once at a 4-H Camp, we used 4-H Box Lids as the “marshmallows.” When I facilitated a program based on the Wizard of [...]

Ride a Bike

Posted on Saturday, February 20th, 2010

I remember the first time I rode down the hill toward the city park after my dad took my training wheels off. Such a feeling of exhilaration and freedom! I still like to ride my [...]

Ride a Horse

Posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010

After reading and re-reading my favorite horse books–Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty and My Friend Flicka–I bought a horse when I was in college. Well, actually two horses. The first was a green-broke Arabian gelding named Pegasus. He [...]

Embrace Winter

Posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010

It’s been an especially cold winter in many places, but kids (and adults) can have fun and get healthy by going outside even in frigid, snowy weather. Each winter I resolve to renew my relationship [...]

Learn by Doing

Posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009

Only as an adult have I settled into my preferred learning style. A counselor once listened to me describe a daydream of swimming and labeled me a kinesthetic learner. I’ve embraced that definition and learned [...]

Tie a Knot

Posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Yesterday I visited the Junior Bridges Chrysalis After-School Group at Southeast Polk Junior High School. It was really fun to see the girls surfing my Web site and then using some of the ideas they [...]

Map Your Mind

Posted on Monday, September 7th, 2009

I’ve filled about one sketchbook each year with notes since I learned to mind map in the early 1990s. Several years before that I had simply stopped taking notes. In those pre-mind map days, I [...]

Break the Ice

Posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009

Eric Martin and Beth Mensing are masters at this icebreaker. At Chrysalis After-School Facilitator Training, Beth pulled HANDSHAKES (download it here) out of her fertile mind at a moment’s notice and taught it to the [...]