I was very fortunate to grow up on a large farm with my two younger sisters and from a young age was able to bike and ride my horse for miles without fear or supervision. We had our own baseball field, a huge family garden, and cousins and neighborhood kids to play with. We built forts and played tag. We went to summer camp. We witnessed the birth and death of animals. We finished our chores before we went to the beach nearly every afternoon in the summer. We caught fireflies in a jar and then let them go because we didn’t want them to die.
Fast forward to today. American children, on average, spend a little over 4 minutes of unstructured time outdoors each day. According to national research by the Outdoor Industry Foundation 80 percent of kids watch more than 3 hours of television a day. Add to that computer and video games, movies and music players and the amount of time being entertained with electronics goes up. Instead, when children aren’t playing couch potato, they are shuttled from one structured activity to another by well-intentioned parents. Add news stories about child molesting and kidnappings and parents aren’t about to let their children play outside unsupervised. Kids have no free time to for unstructured play.
Researchers have discovered that creativity, physical competence, problem-solving ability, confidence, and emotional and intellectual development as well as health benefits are enhanced by nature play. In fact students in environment-based instructional programs score better on standardized tests. In addition, we are raising our children without direct experiences to nature, experience that ”is the most highly cited influence on environmental attitude and conservation activism.” If our children lose that experience, the future of conservation is in jeopardy.
It is up to us, as parents and mentors, to introduce our children to nature. The Children & Nature Network (C&NN) offers “parents, youth, civic leaders, educators and health-care providers access to the latest news and research in this field as well as practical advice, including ways to apply new-found knowledge at home, at school, in work environments, and in the community.”
Resource: Children & Nature Network (C&NN)
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Welcome to Verda Vivo. My name is Daryl Warner Laux.
Those were good times on the Farm. Lots of playing in the fresh air, and not one video game. If you don’t live on one, there are lots of parks and hiking trails to take advantage of. Parents need to get their kids (and themselves) off the couch and outside!