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Grow and Learn Through Movement
Outside is where kids engage in the "big behaviors": running, jumping, skipping, shouting, swinging, tumbling and climbing. As children dash around chasing each other or pause to examine a ladybug on a leaf, their vigorous and finite movements foster a host of growth and aerobic responses. Large and small muscles get a workout. A richer supply of blood and oxygen bathes the heart, lungs and brain. The skeletal system strengthens, and the body soaks in the vitamin D it needs from the sun. When our own parents told us that "kids need to burn off energy," they were right. Today, we're more concerned about our kids burning calories and reducing stress -- and we're right too.Exuberant outdoor activity, so random and joyful, has another role to play. The areas of the brain responsible for movement are located in the cerebral cortex, the same territory that houses higher thought. Movement and "full brain activation and integration" work together, according to Hannaford. She notes that some of the great modern educators, people like Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner and Howard Gardner, recognize and stress the importance of movement to the learning process. Ironically, though, many school districts have been cutting back on recess -- which for many kids is not only their favorite time of day but also an immensely important educational experience.
The Parents' Role
With outdoor time and territory shrinking, kids risk losing the habitat in which they learn best and most effortlessly. Parents and caregivers can re-tip the balance, say the experts, with simple enthusiasm:
- Set reasonable limits on indoor time and organized sports, leaving lots of time and opportunity for free-flowing activity outside.
- Get out there yourself, demonstrating how much you value time outdoors. There's simply nothing like leading by example.
- Pay attention to what your kids enjoy and make sure to nurture it, whether it's digging holes in search of dinosaur bones, chasing fireflies or climbing trees
Natural Tools and Resources. Even babies can enjoy feeling the texture of a tree or a gentle breeze on the skin. Trips to the park, or time on a blanket in the grass, offer rich stimulation and contentment. Toddlers and preschoolers love to play in sand and water, and can spend hours watching animals or plants. In your own yard, keep sand and water areas supplied with kiddie experimental equipment, like buckets, shovels and kitchen tools (colanders, sponges, basters, measuring spoons and cups).
As your child explores, try what's called science-process talk: What do you think will float? How many ways can you fill the bucket? What do you notice about these ants? And how are these leaves -- or rocks or flowers -- different? School-age kids will trigger higher-level thinking when they classify what they see and make inferences from their investigations. They might want to use old-fashioned field notebooks to record their discoveries, and you might also offer a tape recorder or video camera to help them capture their on-the-spot observations and discoveries.
The National Wildlife Federation (nwf.org/natureactivities) offers terrific outdoor suggestions, from building a lizard lair and worm-arium, to making simple butterfly and moth feeders, to identifying the sounds and meanings of the local frog chorus. For preteens and teens, a much more challenging project might be working to certify the family backyard as a wildlife habitat.
And here's a book recommended for anyone, either child or grownup: Sunflower Houses by Sharon Lovejoy, with its inspirational ideas for the garden. What this book and other products show is what our children know almost instinctively: The world is at our fingertips. We just have to make sure we get out there and explore it.
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