LJWorld.com weblogs Stumbles
Posted
by Sandy Beverly
March 18, 2010 at 9:46 a.m.
Getting Reluctant Kids Outside
In my parenting fantasy, my kids spend hours outside a day. They head out after breakfast and play for a good long while. They eat lunch outside. The back yard is their play arena, and the tree house is where they go for comfort and alone time. We have story time outside and take walks every day no matter what the weather. Got the image?
Confession: My kids often need to be poked and prodded to go outside.
What’s keeping them inside, I ask myself. If they want to read, why don’t they take a book outside? If they’re bored, why don’t they wander out to look at the clouds? If they want to be in a fort, why not the many outdoor options?
Well, I haven’t put my finger on the causes of this reluctance, but I have lucked into a few sometimes-solutions.
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A backyard clothesline—I love my clothesline, not just because it allows me to ignore my electric dryer, but because it gets me outside. And when I head outside, chances are my boys will, too.
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Yard work—Ditto #1, and see my wordpress post about raking leaves and mud http://trackinginthemud.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/max-the-mud-one/
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A backyard fire pit—Especially useful on cool days (like the ones we’re having now, when it should be sunny and warm, grrrrrr!)
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A good game of hide-n-seek—What kid doesn’t love the thrill of hiding and seeking? Even more exciting when an adult joins in (at least for my young-ish humans)
All of these work the same way, I think. My kids cross the threshold, then nature works her magic.
How do you poke, prod, or otherwise encourage your kids to be outside?
[For more blogs about kids and nature, visit trackinginthemud.wordpress.com]
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Comments
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justbegintowrite (Ronda Miller) says…
I've never had problems with getting younger children outside. And we do breakfast, lunch, art, circle, snack time out whenever we can. Now, once my own two became busy with school and activities that did seem to change. I can remember tricking them into my car a few times and having hiking gear and snacks in place.
Suggest outdoor activities year round; scouting teaches them how to prepare for all types of weather conditions and makes it fun in the process.
Children may ignore our lead for a time, but as with most learning, they'll come back to their base at some point in their lives. Don't give up!
The_Original_Bob (anonymous) says…
Throwing them outside and locking the doors isn't the way this is handled anymore?
justbegintowrite (Ronda Miller) says…
They'd call the authorites with their cell phones! :)
denak (anonymous) says…
Friends.....that is what is missing today. Or to be more specific, friends that aren't chained to their Xboxes, cell phones, tvs and other assorted electronics.
When I was younger, my mom took care of all the neighborhood kids and we were outside constantly. And we always found something to do because we weren't allowed in the house and we weren't allowed to play on the game console all day.
Today's kids think socializing is texting or talking on the cell phone. Its not walking to the park to hang out or hanging out at so-n-so's house.
I realize that this post might seem as it belongs with the article on no cell phones but seriously, I think the fact that kids today are bombarded with electronics is one of the reasons they don't go outside and why socializing as we knew it as kids has totally changed.
The second reason kids don't go outside these days is because parents take their kids everywhere. Need to go to the park down the street, mom takes them. Need to go to the pool a mile away, dad takes them. My parents were/are blind and they didn't take us anywhere. If we wanted to go to the mall, we had to walk the three miles to get there. If we wanted to go downtown, walked. Swimming pool, walked.
I think parents are so reluctant to let kids out of their sight for whatever reason we have inadvertently curtailed out children's outside opportunities.
As for getting them outside these days, I don't have any real time honored suggestion other than telling them "hey if you want to go over to Sammy's house, you have to walk there" and then letting him walk them.
Dena
misplacedcheesehead (anonymous) says…
Shoot, with the stuff that goes on in my neighborhood, I escort my sons whenever they go outside. Too scared not to. My older one can never, ever be allowed out unsupervised anyway.
That being said, i try to vary their activities inside. I won't let a stupid Wii player or X-box in my house.
Graczyk (anonymous) says…
Misplaced,
Where do you live? Compton or Hyde Park? I don't know how old your kids are, but they don't ride bikes, climb trees, build fort, or any of the other normal kid things?