Play as a Family: A Parent's Guide to Nature Play
From: Teacher Claudia Cázares
By: Green Hearts Institution for Nature in Childhood www.greenheartsinc.org
Hello Families,
Free choice, kids-only outdoor explorations are the “best and highest” form of nature play, but family activities can also add to the fun! There are many books available with great ideas for these family nature activities, but here are a few to try in your own yard. Backyard Campouts: All you need is a basic tent, sleeping bags or blankets, a few snacks, a flashlight, and a nice evening. This can be a real adventure for young children — yet bathrooms, more food, and a rain refuge are just steps away! Picnic under the Stars: If your kids don’t want to sleep out, have a backyard picnic after dark, instead. Even better, plan a midnight picnic during the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August. (Check with your library or the internet for each year’s exact dates.) Plant Things! Planting trees, shrubs, and flowers with your children is a great way to help them bond with their own yard. They will have a special feeling for every plant they help start! Moth Baiting: On a hot summer eve, hang a white bed sheet on your deck or in your yard, and shine a bright light on it for at least 30 minutes (ultraviolet is best, but regular bulbs will work). You’ll be amazed at the moths and other night-flying insects that show up! You can also entice moths with “bait” made from old beer, rotting bananas, and sugar or molasses. Let this “brew” in a dark, warm place until it stinks. Then paint it on tree trunks, and return after dark with a lantern and a field guide. Walk in the Creek: If your yard or neighborhood has a shallow stream, try walking in it. You’ll likely find frogs, water striders, and other insects. Look under creek rocks, too, for weird-looking dragonfly larvae. (Be sure to put the rocks back in the same spots.) Wear old tennis shoes or boots for this excursion.
Play in the Rain: No nearby creek? Then play in the rain on a warm day. Stomp in the mud, slide down a slippery grass slope, catch worms, or just lie down and let the rain fall on your face. “Walk the Acres:” Take a short daily walk around the yard with your children, searching for anything new or interesting. This is especially rewarding during the springtime and early summer, when nearly every day can bring a new plant, insect, or bird! Build a Birdhouse: A simple birdhouse is easy to build with basic tools. Get instructions from the library, a nature center, or the internet, and be sure to follow the guidelines for where to mount it and how high it should be. Feathered tenants will soon arrive! Feed the Birds: Put out a bird feeder or two. Use hanging tube feeders filled with black oil sunflower seed or niger seed, and buy the right feeder for each type! Hang them near a window, have a bird guide handy, and keep a journal of the birds you see. Try a hummingbird feeder, too! Scavenger Hunt: Search your yard for natural objects, colors, or shapes. Take turns with your kids to make up the search lists. Look it Up: Once your kids begin loving the outdoors, they’ll want to know what they’ve found — so keep a few field guides in the house. Golden Guides and Peterson First Guides are good for beginners; the larger Peterson Guides series gives more detail. Show and Tell: Encourage your kids to show you what they find outside, and give them a little dedicated space where they can display their treasures (well, at least the non-living ones…). “Today’s young children are controlled by the expectations, schedules, whims, and rules of adults. Play is the only time they can take control of their world .”
Why does it Matter?
For countless generations, nature play has been a defining part of childhood. Yet only recently have we begun to grasp its powerful and positive impacts on children’s healthy growth and development.
♥ Regular habits of active play during childhood are one of the best predictors of active adulthoods — a perfect prescription for combating the obesity epidemic.
♥ School children who use playgrounds with trees, fields, shrubs, and vegetated edges show more creative play, better concentration, and more inter-gender play than peers with equipment-focused playgrounds.
♥ Outdoor play in green settings reduces the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
♥ According to the “hygiene hypothesis,” early exposure to plants, animals, and soil helps children’s immune systems to develop properly, making them less vulnerable to allergenic conditions like asthma and peanut allergies.
♥ Frequent, unstructured childhood play in natural settings has been found to be the most common influence on the development of life-long conservation values.
The virtual extinction of nature play is an unprecedented mutation of human childhood.
We have unintentionally removed a life force that has been at the center of children’s physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual development throughout the history of humankind. Are you confident that nature play has been replaced in most children’s lives by equally valuable and positive influences? At Green Hearts, we do not think so — and we are finding that most parents instinctively agree. One in five four-year-olds in the U.S. is clinically obese.
By: Green Hearts Institution for Nature in Childhood www.greenheartsinc.org
Hello Families,
Free choice, kids-only outdoor explorations are the “best and highest” form of nature play, but family activities can also add to the fun! There are many books available with great ideas for these family nature activities, but here are a few to try in your own yard. Backyard Campouts: All you need is a basic tent, sleeping bags or blankets, a few snacks, a flashlight, and a nice evening. This can be a real adventure for young children — yet bathrooms, more food, and a rain refuge are just steps away! Picnic under the Stars: If your kids don’t want to sleep out, have a backyard picnic after dark, instead. Even better, plan a midnight picnic during the Perseid meteor shower in mid-August. (Check with your library or the internet for each year’s exact dates.) Plant Things! Planting trees, shrubs, and flowers with your children is a great way to help them bond with their own yard. They will have a special feeling for every plant they help start! Moth Baiting: On a hot summer eve, hang a white bed sheet on your deck or in your yard, and shine a bright light on it for at least 30 minutes (ultraviolet is best, but regular bulbs will work). You’ll be amazed at the moths and other night-flying insects that show up! You can also entice moths with “bait” made from old beer, rotting bananas, and sugar or molasses. Let this “brew” in a dark, warm place until it stinks. Then paint it on tree trunks, and return after dark with a lantern and a field guide. Walk in the Creek: If your yard or neighborhood has a shallow stream, try walking in it. You’ll likely find frogs, water striders, and other insects. Look under creek rocks, too, for weird-looking dragonfly larvae. (Be sure to put the rocks back in the same spots.) Wear old tennis shoes or boots for this excursion.
Play in the Rain: No nearby creek? Then play in the rain on a warm day. Stomp in the mud, slide down a slippery grass slope, catch worms, or just lie down and let the rain fall on your face. “Walk the Acres:” Take a short daily walk around the yard with your children, searching for anything new or interesting. This is especially rewarding during the springtime and early summer, when nearly every day can bring a new plant, insect, or bird! Build a Birdhouse: A simple birdhouse is easy to build with basic tools. Get instructions from the library, a nature center, or the internet, and be sure to follow the guidelines for where to mount it and how high it should be. Feathered tenants will soon arrive! Feed the Birds: Put out a bird feeder or two. Use hanging tube feeders filled with black oil sunflower seed or niger seed, and buy the right feeder for each type! Hang them near a window, have a bird guide handy, and keep a journal of the birds you see. Try a hummingbird feeder, too! Scavenger Hunt: Search your yard for natural objects, colors, or shapes. Take turns with your kids to make up the search lists. Look it Up: Once your kids begin loving the outdoors, they’ll want to know what they’ve found — so keep a few field guides in the house. Golden Guides and Peterson First Guides are good for beginners; the larger Peterson Guides series gives more detail. Show and Tell: Encourage your kids to show you what they find outside, and give them a little dedicated space where they can display their treasures (well, at least the non-living ones…). “Today’s young children are controlled by the expectations, schedules, whims, and rules of adults. Play is the only time they can take control of their world .”
Why does it Matter?
For countless generations, nature play has been a defining part of childhood. Yet only recently have we begun to grasp its powerful and positive impacts on children’s healthy growth and development.
♥ Regular habits of active play during childhood are one of the best predictors of active adulthoods — a perfect prescription for combating the obesity epidemic.
♥ School children who use playgrounds with trees, fields, shrubs, and vegetated edges show more creative play, better concentration, and more inter-gender play than peers with equipment-focused playgrounds.
♥ Outdoor play in green settings reduces the symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.
♥ According to the “hygiene hypothesis,” early exposure to plants, animals, and soil helps children’s immune systems to develop properly, making them less vulnerable to allergenic conditions like asthma and peanut allergies.
♥ Frequent, unstructured childhood play in natural settings has been found to be the most common influence on the development of life-long conservation values.
The virtual extinction of nature play is an unprecedented mutation of human childhood.
We have unintentionally removed a life force that has been at the center of children’s physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual development throughout the history of humankind. Are you confident that nature play has been replaced in most children’s lives by equally valuable and positive influences? At Green Hearts, we do not think so — and we are finding that most parents instinctively agree. One in five four-year-olds in the U.S. is clinically obese.
Check out the Word document of this activity below:
| play_as_a_family.docx |
