Transcript
Speaker: Hello friends, you are listening to Outnumber the Podcast episode 88. Today we are talking all about the importance of outside time, both for ourselves and for our kids. Certainly all of us know that outdoor playtime is important for our kids, but we may not know just exactly how important.
Speaker: We're going to talk today about how it can improve us physically, socially, emotionally, intellectually. There's health benefits. There's even spiritual benefits that we're going to be talking about today. So buckle up and get ready for an excuse to lock your kids outdoors and let them run free because today we're talking about the outdoors.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. We're experienced moms to a combined total of 18 children. Our mission is to help overwhelmed parents find peace in parenting and humor in the chaos. Come join us as we attempt uninterrupted conversation about parenting with joy and intention.
Speaker: Welcome back, everybody. Today's episode is, I think, timed fairly well because we're going to be talking about the importance of outdoor time. And for most of us, well, I won't say us, most of you, outdoor time starts getting a little bit tricky in the late fall and winter, the season we're kind of entering into, especially as kids are spending more time either doing schoolwork at home or in school. Our situation is a little bit different, but we'll talk about that. We just wanted to make sure that we all remember how important it is for kids to get outside.
Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. We're going to talk not only about the importance of the outside time, which is kind of obvious, but we're also going to talk about how to make it happen during all sorts of inclement weather. Yeah, because of course nothing puts a damper on your outdoor plans like it being 20 below or something along those lines. Before we get going, we have a funny mom moment to share. This one came from a friend on Instagram, Sarah DaShito.
Speaker: And she said the following, she said, one day my husband was with my daughter in an Uber to take her to school. When she saw the driver's arms covered in tattoos, she said, daddy, how come this guy had the idea to draw on his arms like that? What if you not take a shower or why is the drawing still all over his arms? And of course, you know, she said it in that loud voice that children have and my husband was super embarrassed.
Speaker: It is always so funny to hear kids' reactions when they see someone who looks a little bit different than them, but what an awesome learning opportunity, right? To say, oh, no, that's just what some people do, and it's art or whatever, but it's kind of funny. I have had kids tattoo their entire bodies with markers like that, so no surprise, and it jumped to her mind, yes. Exactly. That's probably her only experience, right? Is, oh, that's what I do, and then I get in trouble, and I have to take a bath. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so first of all, let's talk about the benefits of outdoor time. Okay, so most of us get it. Being outdoors for kids is important. It's important for us too. But we encountered a couple of really fascinating articles that shared some benefits we might all not be aware of, of outdoor time. So we're gonna share some of these and we'll include the link to these articles in the show notes.
Speaker: Okay, we're going to split this into what? Five different parts where we talk about the benefits of outside time. So let's start with physical outdoor time. The benefits of outdoor time on us and our kids physically improved motor skills and strength. So running and jumping and playing ball and balance. Um, all of those things that they do.
Speaker: that use different muscle groups, as well as lower BMI body mass index. So they'll be more fit and they have a lower chance of being obese. Incredible. Kids that play outside.
Speaker: Right. That's kind of one of the first things we think of, right? Our kids are going to be more active. We know they all need to be more active, right? I think about how many hours a day I spent outside. In fact, I think back on like, I was in school when all my memories are of playing outside, you know, not of doing homework or anything else. I just think that we had a lot more free time back then, or at least our parents made us. I don't know. Yeah. I saw this article and it was written a couple of years ago and they said the percentage of Americans lives that they spend outside is going down.
Speaker: And we're way down in the single digits now of average time that we spend outside, like 7 % or less. I was shocked at that. Yeah, that's really sad. And that's probably the average when you have some outdoor nuts that are biking for four hours a day. And that just balances that with some of us that never go outside, right? Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so the next area is social. And this wasn't one I immediately thought of because it's not directly related to outdoors, but rather what kids do in the outdoors. And that's play with other kids, right? Generally they're out playing with siblings, with neighbors, with kids at the park, whatever. So they learn interpersonal skills. They learn to start a game and win versus lose and be imaginative and have suggestions for the game and, you know, deal with disappointment when they're not picked for a team, whatever, all these different social skills.
Speaker: Another thing this article mentioned that I hadn't thought of either was greater self -esteem and self -awareness. So because they're out in this big wide world, they're looking around and they're like, huh, I'm this person, and I can have an effect on the world. And there's this big world, but I'm still important. Just kind of associating yourself with the Earth, right? That it just does something to your own sense of who you are, that self -awareness. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, that's really neat.
Speaker: And then finally, and I don't know if this is strictly social, but an appreciation for the earth and nature, right? I think that when kids spend time outside, they really come to value plants and animals and the sky and the clouds and the rain and all the things that are around us. Whereas we adults just tend to view them as nuisances sometimes. You got to go rake the leaves. You got to close the garage before it rains. But the kids just really develop that appreciation for nature. Yeah, I see that in my kids too, how much they love it.
Speaker: Um, like when we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about this more when we talk about inclement weather, but the way that my kids react to snow versus the way adults react to snow. I know how I react to snow and it's not like how my kids would for sure. So there's emotional benefits of outside time, um, developing independence with like all the expiration and the risk taking and the making choices.
Speaker: Um, all that adds to their emotional wellbeing. And then, um, they use all five of their senses regularly when they're outside. Do you remember I talked about in a past episode, I think it was one of ours on making holidays less, um, less stressful. I talked about that, that little exercise you can do where you take a kid outside it, maybe a kid who's hysterical or having a really hard time and you take them outside and you have them. If possible, you take off their socks and shoes and have their bare feet touching the ground and you say, okay, name.
Speaker: Tell me five things you can see with your eyes, and four things you can hear with your ears, and three things you could reach out and touch with your hands, and two things that you could taste if you picked them up and tasted them, and one thing that you can smell, and how that really, really is an amazing calming activity for a child.
Speaker: Yes, I remember that. And the interesting thing is this article says that most of the time when we're indoors, we only use a couple of our senses, usually just sight and hearing, right? You know, when dinner is being cooked, we smell it, and then we taste it, et cetera. But to be using them all simultaneously, I mean, hopefully not too much tasting while they're outdoors. But kids do that too. You know, they stick a blade of grass in their mouth or whatever. It's really beneficial to their sensory development. It's pretty fascinating.
Speaker: Yeah, think about those sound machines that they have for babies to help them sleep at night. What are the sounds they put on the nature sounds, right? The wind and the ocean and all that. Yeah, exactly. The ocean one always makes me have to go to the bathroom, but.
Speaker: Okay, so moving on to intellectual or mental. I really think the kids understand that the world is their play space, right? So they have this like, instead of just playing with the toy bin inside, they go outside and it's like, oh my gosh, the
Speaker: just the amount of possibilities is kind of overwhelming. They're like, oh my gosh, I could climb a tree. I could roll down that hill. I could create a fake store behind that bush, whatever, all these different ideas for creativity, imagination. They have this expanded opportunity for learning, for problem solving. That also comes with playing with other kids, for communication with those other kids. This article talked a lot about
Speaker: being able to make friends and deal with conflicts without parents intervening, right? So when we have a play date or they're playing at school, there's parents around all the time, like, oh, talk nice, Johnny, oh, do that, you know, which is great when they're very little and they need to develop those skills. They don't know those lessons yet, but by the time they're six, seven, eight, they know, and they really need to be left alone to create those relationships so that they can learn those skills, how to make a friend, how to be socially, you know, not socially awkward, et cetera. So I thought that was fascinating.
Speaker: Finally, just a lot more creative possibility to make up their own games and just use that imagination like crazy. Yeah, yeah. Think about the different games that the kids play in the different seasons just because of their environment has changed. For example, my kids, they build snowmen in winter. In the fall, they love to rake the leaves into piles and jump in them.
Speaker: In summer they get out the sprinkler and they, you know, run through that. And in spring they run around and find all the new bugs that are hatching out or, you know, everything like their play changes by the season that they're outside, which all adds to their creativity. Okay. The last area we're going to talk about is, um, maybe what you thought at first, when we mentioned that we were going to talk about the benefits about site time is health, the health benefits. But you guys, I found so many health benefits, um, ones I knew about and ones I didn't even know about. So obviously vitamin D.
Speaker: sunshine, like that's the best and the best source of vitamin D as sunshine. You get ozone when you're outside from the fresh air, like the times of year when you can have your windows open over the air conditioning, it's so much healthier for you. So some other things I found are less anxiety, you sleep better when you spend more time outside, you have improved immunity. And one thing I was reading about this was when you're inside and in air conditioning or in, you know,
Speaker: heat and air conditioning. The air is being recycled and not cleansed as well as when you're outside. So this article is saying that the reason that people get sick more often in winter is because they're spending more time inside and they're exposed to other people's germs like that, not because it's cold and they're getting sick from the cold weather.
Speaker: Well, and it's the sugar. Don't forget. We talked about that too. That's fascinating. Yeah. Another thing I was just blown away by, but it makes so much sense is, um, kids that spend more time outside have improved vision. Like they have less, um, myopia. So they're less likely to become nearsighted. So you think about it in a house, you have.
Speaker: distances that your eyes focus that are in feet. Like, you know, maybe you have a 10 -foot ceiling or you have a 20 -foot room if it's a really big one, but you have like feet where your eyes focus. Well, go outside. Where do your eyes focus? They focus, you know, feet, the grass is maybe three feet away for a kid, but then look down the road. That's like yards and, you know, half a mile and how far, so your eyes are doing all this far away focusing. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker: Yeah, that's fascinating. And it still makes me wonder how I ended up so nearsighted with all that outdoor time. I'm kind of blind. Yeah. So also better focus, not just with your vision, but ability to focus and concentrate. Higher self -esteem, like you mentioned, boosting creativity. They say that the more time you spend outside in the morning, the better you have
Speaker: the better balance you have between your sleep and your energy level. And it also affects, if you're trying to lose weight, you should spend time outside in the morning.
Speaker: Interesting. Yeah. Lower pain levels. When you spend time outside, natural aromatherapy, like we're talking about all the smells that are outside, improved memory, lower blood pressure, less depression, decreased risks of cancer, lower stress. Oh my God. I know. Reduces inflammation, eliminates fatigue, and even a lower risk of early death. So let's just go outside.
Speaker: Seriously. Oh my gosh. Now I'm so glad that you did all that research because now I need to go outside and take a jog. It's still hot here, but yeah. So, so, so fascinating. So so many more benefits that any of us could have ever imagined. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to talk about, let's, we're going to talk about how to make this happen when the weather is bad. And I'm going to kind of focus on cold weather and Bonnie's going to talk about hot weather.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. We've got a good balance here. Okay, so I've mentioned before that summer for us here in Phoenix is kind of like winter for everyone else. It's the season you don't go outside a lot. It's sunny, so that's the pro is that there is lots of vitamin D opportunity, but it's so miserable outside and outdoor activities are really, really limited. In fact, there comes a time in the summer where it's too hot to swim. That's a thing. It's right now.
Speaker: coming out of it. One of the things that I worry about is the sunlight because even though we have tons and tons and tons, we go outside slathered in sunscreen or in shade because my kids are very fair and if they're up for five minutes they get fried.
Speaker: We try to open the shades and things so that we get lots of sunlight indoors, spend some time by the windows. But the UV index is often so high that it's not healthy to be outside in the sun. So our tip for that, if you're in a similar situation, is
Speaker: the times of day when it's bearable. And for us, that's usually early morning. So granted our, the sun rises at like 4 45 or something insane, but the earlier you can be in, obviously the better it is to take advantage of the cooler weather and the sun is not so brutal. So in August, for example, you know, like June, most of July, my kids swim in the afternoon after they've done their chores and after lunch, et cetera.
Speaker: But in August, I just let them swim first thing in the morning. So they wake up, they have breakfast, they go get their swim time, they get their energy out, and then we start school a little bit later or chores or whatever because it's just not possible to do later on. So to just kind of adjust our schedule so that they can have some outdoor time even in the months that are kind of miserable. Yeah, those are really good tips. I think about cultures that like the Mexican culture where they have
Speaker: in the middle of the day where they sleep through the hottest part of the day and then they stay up really late. Like supper isn't until nine o 'clock at night, but then they, you know, they kind of make up some of that outdoor time late at night. I don't know. I think I might take up astronomy or stargazing or something. So take it through and after the middle of the day and spend time outside in the evening. All right. So talking about cold weather now switching here between hot and cold.
Speaker: Um, so I think, okay, my kids love to go outside in the winter. Like I can hardly keep them outside. I can hardly keep them inside when it's cold outside. They love it so much. And part of it is the snow and the novelty of that, but they just really love to be outside. And I think because they spend so much time outside that their little bodies adapt and acclimate to cold weather. Um, I did look up some stuff for about playing in the snow and how that is so healthy for kids like
Speaker: like rain brings ozone straight down to the earth, snowflakes are doing the same thing. But a story about kind of acclimating to the weather or colder climates. I've said before that I grew up in Montana in the Rocky Mountains, and we used to float the river all the time. Now, during the summer, because it was, you know,
Speaker: 80s and 90s. It was nice, but the river was never warm. It was really cold, but we'd spend hours in the river, you know, floating down it and it felt great and it was icy and it was basically snowmelt.
Speaker: And so a couple of years after my husband and I were married, we went back and we're like, oh yeah, let's float down the river. And we, me, I could not stay in that river. It was too, too cold. Like I had lost my acclimation to that cold, like whatever. My blood was thinner or thicker or, you know, I'd lost my fat stores or whatever it was that my body was adapted. And I could not stay in that river. Like I had to get out and walk along the shores. Everybody floated down the river.
Speaker: I did find that exposure to cold boosts your immune system and that you have higher energy levels because you have more, oh shoot, I can't pronounce this word. It's a natural chemical in your blood. I think it's norepinephrine, norepinephrine? Yes, norepinephrine. It's a natural chemical that's produced by the body. It reduces pain, but it's in your blood and your body makes it during cold weather like it boosts the levels. So that's one cool thing about being outside in the weather.
Speaker: in the cold weather. Also, I found that your metabolism speeds up to keep your body warm and you get vitamin D by being outside in the winter. Not as much as in the summer months, but you do. And I talked about less germ exposure and cold weather boosts your brain activity. I don't know why, but it just has to keep you warm. So yes, I don't let my kids go outside in super, super cold weather, but I don't know. They love it and I just let them go.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm kind of of the opinion that if your kids want to go out and they feel fine in it, to let them, right? My husband has lots of stories. In fact, he thinks that our kids are big babies because he grew up here as well. And he has memories of going out and playing baseball in July and August. It's 110, 112 degrees. And they're like, wow, we just drank out of the hose. It was fine. And I'm like, even the hose is 90 degrees.
Speaker: But kids just adapt for sure. In fact, that's a funny story about your cold river. I had something similar happen. We lived in Michigan for a lot of my childhood, and then we would go on summer vacation to visit my grandparents in Northern California. And California, as you know, is not all LA, right? It gets cold in the north, and it's fairly temperate where they lived. But in the summer, it would get into the 90s.
Speaker: The water would never really get cold because it always cooled down at night. And we would play in that pool all day long. My grandparents had the best pool and it was just so much fun. So I went back as an adult with my kids and my kids all jumped in the pool and I tried to get in and there was no way I was going to get in that pool. It was probably, I don't know, high 60s, low 70s. I'm like, nope, not happening. Probably just because I live here now, but it's funny how your bodies really do acclimate to where you are.
Speaker: Okay, so a couple of tips I have for helping kids survive the really hot months if you're in a climate like us also can be beneficial to those cold weather months, just anytime you can't go outside. And the main tip I want to share is that we have to try to give our kids opportunities to exercise and use their bodies and play indoors as they would outdoors. If you don't have the chance to play outdoors safely,
Speaker: then you have to make things work inside, right? So maybe consider getting one of those little small trampolines, or one thing my kids like to do is pull mattresses off beds and slide down the stairs. I mean, I'm not advocating everybody has to have that kind of chaos, but there are some fun, unique things you can do to help your kids get that energy out inside.
Speaker: Some friends of mine have an indoor swing in their house, which is pretty fun as long as you don't mind holes in the walls, I guess. But it's funny how we have transitioned into this society that expects kids to always be sitting quietly in school, in church, et cetera. And that's just not what kids are like. They need to use their bodies. They need to use their energy. So we have considered shifting our schedule so that my kids don't do a lot of sports and physical. They don't do a lot of indoor sports or team type things, dance, et cetera.
Speaker: in the winter months, because that's when we play outside. But they do that when it's too hot to be outside in the summer. So maybe consider that. If you can't be outside in August, maybe your kids could do an indoor basketball camp or something like that. We have quite a few opportunities to go play in big trampoline parks or gymnasiums or big jungle gyms indoor. And I'm sure most places that have inclement weather of some sort can find something similar to help your kids get that energy out. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker: Okay, so switching back to cold weather.
Speaker: I just make sure that my kids have proper snow clothes and snow gear when they go outside since they love it so much. And I don't let my little kids that can't express to me that their toes are cold. I don't let them go outside and spend a super amount of time outside. But my kids, when they get cold, too cold, they come in. They don't stay out if they get cold. So, you know, I just make sure that they have proper snow clothes and gear and they love it if I make them a hot drink when they come in. On our Instagram stories, I have saved our
Speaker: healthy hot chocolate three different ways and I make them that. And I also make sure I have dry socks for them to put on because it seems like their digits get the coldest, like their socks and their fingers. So just make sure they have gloves and dry socks and change them.
Speaker: But outdoor activities, sledding, skiing, ice skating, they all need special equipment. But my kids love it so much that it doesn't have to be expensive. There was a storm in the fall and a piece of the barn roof blew off and it was metal. And they just bent that into the shape of a sled and spent hours sledding on that last winter. So it doesn't take much.
Speaker: Yeah. And then also, you know, I watch them when they're outside and they're not just like standing outside in the cold shivering. They're running and they're jumping and they're making snowmen and they're sliding. Like if I told my kids in spring or fall or any other time of year to go out to the hill, out back where they slid and go down it, slide down it,
Speaker: and run back up 25 times or 30 times or 50 times, they'd be like, no mom, why? It's a punishment. I know, but when it's snowing and they get to slide down it on a sled and then they climb back up, they would do that all day long and think it's great.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure. Oh yeah, we've spent a little bit of time in snow just going up to cabins or things up north in the state where it snows. And my kids, I mean, like forget Christmas. All you need is a good dump of snow. And my kids think it's the best day ever. So fun.
Speaker: Okay, so my final tip for hot weather is that anything involving water can usually be done at some point during the day in the summer. You might have to get creative like when it gets really hot, do it in the morning, etc. like I was mentioning. So we try to swim at specific times of the day, but also in pools with shade. So our pool, for example, we have one in our house, it doesn't have any shade, but we have put up
Speaker: shade sales to help stay cool part of the year. We'd like to go to my mom's house that has some shade, so just to be aware of how much sun is beating on you while you are playing outside. There are splash pads when it's not too crazy hot because if it's really hot you want to be submerged, you know. One summer before we had a pool we bought one of those big blow -up water slides. Have you seen those? They're like...
Speaker: 10, 15 feet tall and you blow it up and you put the hose on it. I mean, that was the best summer ever. My kids just went crazy. They played on that for hours and hours and hours. It was several hundred dollars, but it was well worth its money, even just for the one summer because they played on it nonstop. The fun treats of going to a water park, obviously not an everyday thing because they're expensive, but slip and slides, even just like a little baby play pool on the patio where your little ones can be in the shade, but still,
Speaker: get wet and enjoy the outdoor time. Sometimes we just have to get creative when it's miserable outside. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I wanted to mention some other inclement weather things that can happen. Storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, dust storms, forest fires, other reasons why you can't go outside. And I think I did mention in our How to Stay Healthy in Winter episode last week, I mentioned that my kids and I go out and dance in the rain. Like, just because it's raining doesn't mean you can't be outside.
Speaker: Yeah, so like there's something about nature's water that's just so healthy like swimming swimming in lakes and rivers and oceans and ponds like how how it's like on a whole nother level than swimming in a
Speaker: chlorinated pool, right? Yeah. My kids, we have a set of pictures that are pretty hilarious. Several years ago, we had a massive flood here at the end of the summer and I let my kids just go out and go crazy in it. And I went down to take a picture of them and they were sitting on a park bench at the edge of our little neighborhood pond.
Speaker: but the pond had swelled so big that the park bench was submerged. So there were like floats sitting on this bench and thought it was the funniest thing ever swimming around the street. I mean it was just like a kid's play place for sure. Yeah okay one thing I like to do when we're having inclement weather is extend the nature indoors with activities like
Speaker: nature poems, raising butterflies or birds or fish or little small animals have lots of houseplants indoors. Bring in things from the outside of course before it's storming that you can do like drawing or tracing leaves or having a you know still life the kids are trying to paint. Make scrapbooks with pictures from your trip to the ocean or
Speaker: listen to seashells, do in -depth nature science studies, that kind of stuff. So I like to extend the outdoors into the indoors so that we have things to do when we can't be outside and inclement weather. I love that idea. And it helps continue developing their love for the outdoors without actually being in a crazy storm with a bunch of lightning. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay, so now let's shift gears a little bit to when the weather is nice. So the weather's nice, you want your kids outside, and yet they still just want to be stuck inside playing a video game or whatever else they want to do. Here are a few ideas for encouraging kids to get out there and play when you know that they need it, right?
Speaker: Um, and the first one might not be popular with everyone, but I will say that we do forced outdoor time. When my kids had been like at the end of the summer for us, the weather starts to get nice and usually the young kids run outside. They're super excited, but my older kids sometimes are kind of hesitant. Like, I'll just stay in here and read a book.
Speaker: You know, they're not really motivated to get out. So I'll just say, I'm sorry, 2pm to 4pm. You're not allowed inside. And there's multiple benefits to that. Number one being that I don't go crazy all day with kids inside anymore. But even my most resistant child, who shall remain nameless,
Speaker: does not like to be outdoors and when he is forced outside he comes back with a big smile on his face and just happy and energetic and you know a little sun on his skin and i just think oh look you did need some outdoor talk you just didn't know that right so there's nothing wrong with locking your kids out for a little bit yeah yeah i've totally hung a hammock outdoors so that my book reading kids can still
Speaker: Get some of those outdoor benefits and get their book read at the same time. Right. For sure. For sure. And there's nothing quite so nice as reading a book in a hammock with the perfect breeze and the shade. Oh, I love it. It's the best. I will also say that we need to avoid the temptation to schedule or plan all our kids' outdoor activities. So especially, you know, like let's say you've got a stuffy cold winter and all winter long you've just been planning play dates and outings and things to get the kids from going crazy. And then spring comes and you're tempted to do the same. Don't just let them outside.
Speaker: and let them figure it out. We've talked before about how the more screens kids have, the less they use their imagination. And this is usually a big transition when it's time to go back outside. It's like, oh, there's nothing to do. Well, there's plenty to do, but you just forget how to come up with it because your brains have been shoved entertainment at them or whatever.
Speaker: during those cold or hot months or whatever. So sometimes I'll throw just like a jump rope or a box of chalk at my kids and then close the door and say, I figured out. And they do. They might be bored for a few minutes. Usually the younger ones always come up with something. But the older ones, they figure it out. And then all of a sudden they've got a rope and pulley system pulling things up into the tree. And then they're making a whole town out of some old firewood that's behind the house. It doesn't matter what it is. They just need to be out there figuring it out.
Speaker: Yeah, I absolutely agree with that. I, I have my kids outside time be mostly free play. So I, and I did want to say a word that here that, um, okay. So a lot of you are kind of either new to homeschool this year, or your kids are doing online learning or virtual learning, distance learning, whatever your kids are doing, but they're at home.
Speaker: totally start giving them more outside time, like demand it, because you know that creativity, like if they're working on a problem and they're stuck, math problem, they're crying over it, you know, raise your hand here, is your kid doing that? Send them outside for 20 minutes and they'll come back in and boom, that math problem will be like, whoa, why was this so hard? I just suddenly figured it out. And it's all those things we were talking about, like those problem solving skills and all that, that are just coming into play and they're bringing the indoors with them. Plus they smell really good when they come in from outside. They smell like Oso.
Speaker: Yeah. So things that you can do with them if kids are kind of stuck is just start, go out and start walking. Nature walks with a purpose. Okay. We're going to count how many birds we see and just start that off with your purpose. Just one little purpose. And it will turn into a really exciting, incredible event. I do want to recommend the book, Handbook of Nature Study. If your kids, once they start getting involved in outside stuff and they have tons and tons of questions, it helps, um,
Speaker: them focus in on one thing and learn really in depth about it. And it's a really, really awesome book. So we like to explore new areas and parks. I encourage sometimes when my kids are outside and we're going on a nature walk or something, I encourage them to listen.
Speaker: and not talk. Okay, let's all be quiet and not talk for five minutes. And I'll set a timer to go off and let's see what we can hear. And that engages a different part of their brain because when you're talking, that's a different part of your brain than when you're looking and observing and listening. So that's all really amazing. Observation, take nature journals.
Speaker: do some nature mandalas. I think you can look on Delia Create's website and find her examples of nature mandalas where you make like rainbows out of different colored things that you find in nature. Fairy houses, my kids love to build fairy houses. They build this little house for a fairy out of things they found in nature and then make up little stories about their little fairies that are living in their fairy houses. They do this for hours. Build forts, fort building. We have a woods
Speaker: across the road from our house and they go in there and they just build forts and they come back and they've got all these stories about who sport and what they did and all that. All this is just unstructured. You can do things like introduce them to plein air art. So they take their art supplies outside and they just start drawing or painting or shaping, molding with clay. Bird watching is one that my kids love to do. They can also do that in inclement weather from indoors sometimes. Photography, nature photography,
Speaker: That's a whole rabbit hole right there, an amazing one. You can track the weather and get kids interested in stars and clouds and different types of clouds and it rained five days in a row and then it did this or hey, my daughter came in this morning and told me, you know what, there was dew on the grass this morning.
Speaker: There was no, no, what she said was there was no dew on the grass last night. And I thought that meant it was going to rain today, but it didn't rain overnight or today. And so I have to figure out what this means. And she's going back out to figure out what it means when there's no dew on the grass at night. So just get your kids out there and they're going to come up with stuff themselves. You really don't have to come up with things for them for very long. Right. I love that you shared all those because those are all, I mean, if your kids are acting hesitant, like they don't know what to do or they haven't had enough
Speaker: uh, opportunities to use their imagination. You can just get them started on any one of these. Here's a notebook and a pen and some colored pencils. Go find something amazing. Find five things that start with the letter P, draw them and bring them back. You know, I don't know what anything to get them started their imagination. You probably won't see them for three hours. It's awesome. Outdoors amazing.
Speaker: I would also say to avoid the temptation to give them too many rules outdoors. Okay. So there's been a lot of talk over the past five or six years or so that I've noticed on parenting websites about, um, what's safe, what's appropriate, and what is the danger of maybe giving your children too many restrictions. So for example, we at our house tell my kids how far they're allowed to wander alone, right? Okay. You can stay in this neighborhood. You can't go past this street, whatever.
Speaker: And then we have the stranger rules, right? Like you don't go into anybody's house that we don't know, et cetera. And other than that, we don't have any other rules, okay? Some people, you know, like I think it's really tempting to say, well, you can't climb higher than that. You can't do whatever. And yet there's a lot of benefit to be gained from kids taking appropriate risks outside.
Speaker: And there have been so many articles I've noticed in the last few years about talking about how we actually take away some strengths from our children when we restrict them in doing kind of scary things. And that's a hard thing to do as a parent, right? You, in your mind, especially as a mom, you just see it. You see it happen. You see them fall off the tree and break their arm. And you know what I mean? Like, no. We just see the bad stuff happen. And we're like, oh, oh.
Speaker: But really we should be finding ways to praise their imagination and their risk taking rather than constantly saying, be careful, be careful, be careful, right? Because what we're doing when we say be careful is like showing them that we actually don't trust their judgment skill, right? But instead, you know,
Speaker: kind of tamp that down and say, wow, you're so high in that tree. I'm so impressed with your climbing. Or you can ride your bike so fast. That's amazing, right? Now kids are built with this innate sense of judgment and of what is appropriate, you know, like what, what is taking the risk too far, et cetera. We all know because boys always get hurt more than girls are like certain personalities get hurt. We know that those kids maybe take it a little bit too far, but you know what they learn when that happens?
Speaker: they learned that that was taking it too far, and then they don't go that far again, right? They fall off their bike, they skin their knee, and they realize, oh, I leaned over a little bit too far. I'm going to not do that next time, right? There's so many life lessons. And so we're going to share a couple articles about this as well. But if you're tempted to caution your kid against doing something, and we're talking like play stuff. We're not talking like, I don't know, jumping off the roof. There's like some clear cut rules you can have, right? No, that's not okay.
Speaker: But if you're tempted to be a little bit too overprotective, too helicopter mom -ish, ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen, right? So they're riding their bike, they fall off, what's the worst thing that could happen? Well, if they don't have a helmet and they're in traffic, bad things, right? So maybe they say that traffic, that was where a helmet, then what's the worst thing that could happen? A skinned knee, maybe a broken bone, maybe, right? Like there's just so many amazing opportunities for kids as they play and they take these appropriate risks, if that makes any sense.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm really glad you mentioned what you did about the rules like in a neighborhood because we live way out in the country and like we don't have those kind of rules because we don't even have any neighbors. So thank you for mentioning that kind of stuff.
Speaker: One thing I did want to share about the risk taking thing as well is that I've read multiple studies that have shown that when kids are allowed to take appropriate risks, so we're talking like jumping off a slide or climbing too high in a tree or you know that kind of thing.
Speaker: it's actually been shown to prevent them from taking inappropriate risks later on in life. And the inappropriate risks that we look at like as teens and young adults are like drugs and sex and criminal behavior, like really bad stuff, right? So I thought that was fascinating that by restricting our kids play and sometimes scary play as little kids, we could actually encourage them to take worse risks later on. Like it's really important that they learn those skills early on. That's awesome.
Speaker: My kids are probably going to be complete law about boring adults because they're just like crazy risk takers. Like my two little boys we have an orchard and my two little boys find
Speaker: great joy in climbing to the very top of the trees and making and calling my name and I have to search around to the orchard like at the top of every tree till I find him up there and then it's like okay I'm gonna send your brother out but I don't need to see that yeah okay some amazing things that I thought about them learning and picking up outside and developing is cause and effect so here's a trail of ants and
Speaker: What do they do when I put a stick in their pack? Okay, that's really cool. They just set up all these little amazing scientific experiments for themselves. We talked about imagination building and in -depth studies and learning insects, birds, trees, astronomy. Even if you live in the middle of a city, those four right there, insects, birds, trees, and astronomy, you can do those. Yeah, exactly. I'm studying geography terms like
Speaker: not, you know, North America, South America, but river and lake and inlet and K and crevice and, you know, all these things that are like geographical shapes. Um, and think about the new physical skills like, okay, so a while ago, a couple of years ago, um, my teenage son and I were laughing that we're going to start a YouTube channel and it was going to be called something about exercise on the farm farmer exercise for farmers. And basically all the activities that you do outside
Speaker: that people go to a gym and try to replicate. So like rowing and climbing and digging and throwing and shoveling and all these, all these motions that you do outside that are amazing and build muscles and yeah. All right. And then think of all the outdoor sports, like all the muscle groups and all the, all the benefits that come from all the outdoor sports that are played. So yes, so many benefits of being outdoors.
Speaker: Yeah, and no matter how well you try to replicate those things that you're doing outdoors, you'll never fully get the full body benefits that you can get from using your entire body to dig a ditch or whatever needs to be done around the farm, right? Throwing a frisbee indoors is not happening. Exactly, exactly.
Speaker: So a few final thoughts. I keep going back to defaulting the screens because that's what a lot of us are tempted to do when the weather is poor. Or there's just a lack of outdoor time in general, right? Like you're trying to figure out what my friend calls crisis schooling, COVID schooling, right? There's just a lot of stress, that lack of outdoor time and free play. In our family, we see an increase in all the bad things. More arguing, more tantrums, more frustration, more impatience, more selfishness.
Speaker: all the bad things come out, right? It's just like everybody goes crazy. And I'm thinking, hmm, why is everyone so crazy this week? Oh, well, we haven't had a lot of outdoor time or free play. We've had too much, even if it's educational screen time, still too much computer time. And when that stuff goes away and they're allowed to express themselves outside and they spend hours just using your imagination, then we see
Speaker: Get more contentment, friendships develop, laughter, learning, happiness, better appetites, better sleep, like you mentioned, just all the good things of childhood come out shining when they have that outdoor time. And I know it's not always a possibility, but so much more is in our power than we realize. And I will say that as those of us who have to, well, we're staying home because we want to, but for those of you who are staying home because you have to for school, think about ways where you can incorporate the outdoors.
Speaker: before your weather gets bad, right? Could you take some worksheets out on the back porch? Could they be swinging while they do their math facts? Could they, you know, could you bring, you know, so much of the outdoors into your education so that they're not just stuck inside, quote unquote, learning from a book, right, for hours instead of enjoying the outdoors? Oh yeah, those are really nice, really nice thoughts. Okay, I have some final thoughts and brace yourself because Audrey's gonna get all weird again.
Speaker: But I believe that we were created for the outdoors. Like when God created life on Earth, He didn't create houses. Like He created us to have a symbiotic relationship with nature. And I believe our health depends on our contact with the nature and with Earth. I mentioned grounding therapy, where you take off
Speaker: your socks and shoes or you get as much of your skin in contact with the earth as you can. That's why so many people love gardening and even have health benefits, not just from the good food they're eating, but because they're touching the earth. Think about the healing power of herbs. So for example, in nature, wherever you find poison ivy growing,
Speaker: You will also find, most of the time, you'll find jewelweed growing as well. So poison ivy, you know, makes you have this horrible rash. Jewelweed, if you take it and rub it on your poison ivy, it will just go away. And there's just thousands of examples in nature of the healing power of herbs and things in nature to help and to heal.
Speaker: There are and used to be way more well -known medicinal or sacred areas like that the Native Americans used to have. And even our Caucasian ancestors, there was hot springs and salt licks.
Speaker: places where people would go to be healed and they would soak in the hot springs or they would, you know, at the salt licks, the animals would go there and lick the minerals and people would start gathering up those minerals and, you know, partaking of them as well so that they could be healed. And just think of all those, like the earth is here to heal us. It's like created for us to have a symbiotic relationship. And I really believe that our connection to ourself
Speaker: And to everything else, like our other humans and everything else, it is a reflection of how connected we are to nature. So I just believe that there are so many benefits of outdoor time and being in touch with nature because
Speaker: because it is a very spiritual thing because it was created by God. So those are my final thoughts on being outdoors. Even if you don't believe the same as I do, just get your kids outdoors and yourself for all those other benefits that we've been talking about. Yeah, I love that. Thanks so much for sharing all that. So we have some resources for you as well. We'll link those articles that we talked about and some of the other stuff. Silo and Sage has a really nice nature adventure pack.
Speaker: with learning principles, things that you can do if your kids aren't really used to this, spending time outside in nature. Get in touch and involved with the wild and free community, basically the whole basis of their whole entire curriculum and thought education is outdoors. I mentioned the Handbook of Nature Study book and Delia Creates, Nature Mondalas will link to those. And we'll link to all those other articles that we were referencing as well.
Speaker: Thanks so much for tuning in. Did you know you can help the podcast in several ways? First up, we're on Patreon and there are three different levels to support us there.
Speaker: Just head to patreon .com slash outnumbered. Next up, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a written review on iTunes. It helps other parents find the podcast and receive the help you're enjoying. And finally, you can follow us on Instagram at outnumbered the podcast. We're always having fun over there too. As usual, if you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can reach us at outnumbered the podcast at gmail .com. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week.
