Spring finally seems to have arrived (although I barely dare say so), and it seems fitting to return to some of my original twelve pieces of advice, particularly:
1. Make sure she spends time outside
2. Don’t overschedule her
Now that the weather has improved, sending children outside is easier. Directly related to spending more time outside is not overscheduling our children. Having free time outdoors allows children to experience the salutary effects of nature and provides opportunities for children to play, something many of them don’t do enough.
If you read this column often, you have probably figured out that I love technology. However, I also believe that technology easily enslaves us and that we owe it to ourselves and our children to take breaks from our screens, and do something else, preferably together and outside.
We do not need scientists or social scientists to tell us that our children have less unstructured free time than we did at their age, nor do we need these experts to inform us that these young people spend less time outside (with the exception of organized sports) than we did. In fact, between 1997 and 2003, the number of children ages 9-12 engaged in “outside activities such as hiking, walking, fishing, beach play, and gardening” declined by 50% according to University of Maryland professor Sandra Hofferth. She also found that children’s free, unstructured time decreased by nine hours per week over a 25-year period.[i]
According to Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder, nature positively affects children and adults in numerous ways. Adopting the renowned Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson’s argument that humans have “the urge to affiliate with other forms of life,” a condition he calls “biophilia,” Louv believes that we have an inherent need to connect with nature, flora and fauna, an imperative essential to our healthy development.[ii] Without this connection, we suffer.
A ten-year study of patients whose gall bladders had been removed found that those whose rooms looked out on trees recovered faster than those whose windows looked at a brick wall. Likewise, prisoners whose cell windows offered a vista of farmland got sick less often than those inmates who looked out onto the prison courtyard. Yet another study revealed that viewing pictures of nature after a stressful experience significantly reduced “muscle tension, pulse, and skin-conductance readings” in only five minutes.[iii] Peter Kahn in The Human Relationship with Nature reviewed more than 100 studies showing that spending time in nature decreases stress in adults. Cornell professor of design and environmental analysis Nancy Wells conducted research that concluded “that life’s stressful events appear not to cause as much psychological stress in children who live in high nature conditions as compared with children who live in low-nature conditions.”[iv] Wells’ and her colleague Gary Evans’ examination of the impact of living in a more natural environment on children’s levels of anxiety, depression and behavioral disorders determined that more nature meant fewer emotional problems. In addition, “children with more nature near their homes also rated themselves higher than their corresponding peers on a global measure of self-worth.” [v] Some studies even suggest that spending time in nature “may reduce the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.”[vi]
In 2002, The State Education and Environmental Roundtable, a nationwide initiative to analyze environment-based education issued a report based on 10 years researching the best environment-based education programs around the country; the report contends that such programs “produce[s] student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math; improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages; and develop[s] skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision-making.” [vii] Now, I’m not sure that this was just about the nature aspect, but rather that this form of education is experiential and project based, pedagogies that enhance learning (and that are integral parts of Holton’s new strategic plan), but certainly nature provides an excellent environment in which to use these approaches. We all know that, left to their own devices, children in a natural environment, following their own whims, will naturally explore and learn.
North Carolina State University professor Robin Moore devotes his work to promoting children spending time in nature. Nature is important, he believes, because it provides multi-sensory experiences that involve a kind of interaction and engagement necessary for the ”healthy development of an interior life. . . . This type of self-activated, autonomous interaction is what we call free play. . . . A rich open environment will continuously present alternative choices for creative engagement.” He contrasts this with the “often distorted, dual sensory (vision and sound only), one way experience of television and other electronic media.”[viii]
As Moore suggest, one of the most important reasons for children and young people to go outside is that nature encourages play, an activity far more essential to healthy emotional and cognitive development than we may think – more on the value of play next week.
So spending time in the out of doors helps us to be healthier, less stressed, and generally emotionally and mentally more balanced. Nature feeds curiosity and creativity. There really are no downsides and only upsides to fresh air.
Our girls go outside quite a lot. Lower Schoolers enjoy outside recess of unstructured time everyday weather permits. Last fall, they built a shrine for a dead chipmunk they found on the turf field. The fifth graders work in their garden and explore the creek. 6th through 8th graders go on outdoor education trips. Older girls might take a run through the neighborhood. On nice days, they sit out in the gardens studying and chatting. And we could probably do more on our beautiful campus.
Last weekend, I persuaded my husband and son to support a student fundraiser, and take a bike ride on the Capital Crescent Trail. We rode all the way to the Georgetown waterfront where we had lunch by the river and watched crew races. Afterwards, we rode back to Bethesda. I had never been on the Capital Crescent Trail; it was so pretty riding through the budding foliage, along the canal and the river. We enjoyed each other’s company as well as the camaraderie of other school folks. We had a great time, returning both tired and refreshed. Even my son, who hadn’t wanted to go, admitted it was fun.
I hope you’ll take advantage of the most beautiful season in this part of the world. Send your children outside – just let them go for awhile. And don’t be afraid; according to Louv, we have grossly exaggerated the dangers our children might encounter. Encourage them to spend time in solitude and reflection as well as play in groups free of structure and adult organization. As a family, take a walk or a bike ride; have a picnic. Get a hammock. Play croquet or badminton. Take a deep breath. It’s all way cheaper than even going to the movies!
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