As we celebrate National Park Week, Richard Louv — the bestselling author of Last Child in the Woods and authority on connecting kids with nature — offers up some easy ways to bring the parks to your family in his brand new book, Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life.

“Take a vacation or staycation at a state or national park.” Many parks around the country offer family or group outing programs with activities like fishing or hiking. Louv also suggests buying a unlimited annual family pass to the national parks for $80. (Compare that price for a whole year to the cost of taking the family out to the movies just one time.)

“Kids, parents and other adults can take a powerful next step in helping to create a Homegrown National Park.” The Homegrown National Park was an idea started by Doug Tallamy in his book Bringing Nature Home. It is the idea that everyday gardeners have the power to revive urban biodiversity. Louv suggests a Worldwide Homegrown Park where kids could be a part of the “regreening of a nation.”

“Parks are for people who look like me.” Rue Mapp, founder of Outdoor Afro, does her best to create nature in urban areas. She creates pop-up parks and parklets to offer a chance to temporarily mingle and interact with people in green areas. But Mapp is also an advocate of getting a more racially diverse population into national parks after finding out only 1 in every 5 park visitor is nonwhite. Outdoor Afro is working toward this goal and encourages others to join.