"Nature is all around us. It is part of us, and we are all connected to every living being through it. Indoors or outdoors we need to appreciate how we are all one with nature."
Books
"Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv is a thought provoking exposition on how nature is not only good for children, but is an absolute essential for a child's healthy development both physically and emotionally. Louv brings together research studies, narratives, and personal experience to create a message on the necessity of "saving our children from Nature-Defecit Disorder". Louv sees the health of the Earth and the health of our children as an inseparable pair and argues that we need a full society shift to be able to recognize why not only the children, but all of us need more nature. Louv breaks this book into 7 sections, each with multiple chapters that provide significant research from cutting-edge studies to reinforce his arguments. The first part argues that their is a new relationship between children and nature unlike anything that previous generations have experienced in the past. He argues that this shift in society to being more 'indoor folks' has played a major contribution to our appreciation and understanding of nature, and the separation from human populations seeing themselves as a separate entity that exists outside of 'nature'. Part two reinforces the reasons that children and adults need to spend time in nature, and provides specific examples of physical and mental health benefits to being outside. Part three shares some of the common fears and misconceptions shared amongst people today for reasons that they are not spending as much time outside. Shockingly, our social context and the fears of the real world as well as the lack of education on nature and natural history are two of the main reasons that people claim not to be spending as much time outside. In part four, Louv attempts to debunk these myths and misconceptions and change the fear into hope for how to change this mindset. Part five specifically focuses on "The Natural School Reform" or schools that are integrating more outdoor education into their traditional programs. The evidence in this chapter for why more natural education is something worth pursuing is hard to argue with and is something that I based much of my rationale on for this project. In chapter six Louv wonders about how our society may evolve and transform into a less metropolis based world and back to the 'wild way things were'. In part seven, Louv concludes the book with an optimistic perspective on how developing a personal connection nature has touched his own children and how healing the broken bond between children and nature is overwhelming but necessary and possible if we act soon. This book also includes a field guide from his own research and 100 detailed actions that we can do to move forwards with developing a greater personal connection to nature. This book is highly recommended for parents and educators who can see the need for a greater social change and need a jumping off point for how to get started.
"Growing Up Wild" by Alexia and Duncan Barrable is an enlightening perspective from a couple who appreciate the "growing body of evidence pointing to the need for children to spend more time outside" and aim to show their readers how to access nature and teach kids to enjoy spending more time outdoors. The book begins with three chapters packed full of reasons and benefits of getting your kids outdoors, reasons include physical well-being, mental health, and character building. The second part of the book is a year long personal reflection on their family's journey to spend more time outdoors. This part is broken into four chapters that are correlated with the seasons, and give specific details on activities they did to encourage the kids to get outdoors. As well as reflections on their journey for the year. They provide a multitude of specific resources, extensions to take their activities further, and research on the most effective ways to use their strategies. This book is a must have for parents who are looking for ways to introduce their young children to a more nature involved home life, and a great starting point for learning about all of the health benefits that come with spending more time outdoors. For me, this book became part of my rationale for why I want to pursue this project and provided me with much of the reasoning and justification I used for this project.
"There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather" by Linda Akeson McGurk is written by a Scandinavian mom who claims she has revealed the secrets for raising healthy, resilient, and confident kids. In her introduction, she discusses her difficult transition to living in The United States where virtually all activities are in weather controlled climates and how big of a cultural shift this was from the way she was raised in Scandinavia. Linda Akeson McGurk reviews the visible healthy benefits she has research, experienced, and observed with her own children. She shares her journey of getting her kids to enjoy being outdoors more and provides various strategies and activities to get kids outdoors. She also provides more than enough reasons for us to put the excuses aside and let kids play outside. McGurk shares her struggles with the American cultural norms she experienced.
From the lack of outdoor play happening in her child's daycare group at the age of six months old throughout their development into grade school, the struggle to fit the outdoor play time into their evenings and weekends became increasingly difficult for her. She notes some of the main struggles of outdoor play as mentioned by her children's teachers. Students would not go out for recess unless the temperature was above -7 degrees celsius with the wind chill, recess was withheld as a disciplinary tool, teacher's did not want to go out if it was too cold or rainy since students are sent with inappropriate clothing, parents would give teachers grief if they sent the kids out in the cold, parental anxiety fuelled administrators fear of lawsuits which changed the nature of the type of activities students were allowed to participate in. The general opinion of "better safe than sorry" took over the school, and the "safest option of all seems to be to keep them inside". For every argument that McGurk comes across throughout her book, she shares a section on how to answer all of those what if questions.
From the lack of outdoor play happening in her child's daycare group at the age of six months old throughout their development into grade school, the struggle to fit the outdoor play time into their evenings and weekends became increasingly difficult for her. She notes some of the main struggles of outdoor play as mentioned by her children's teachers. Students would not go out for recess unless the temperature was above -7 degrees celsius with the wind chill, recess was withheld as a disciplinary tool, teacher's did not want to go out if it was too cold or rainy since students are sent with inappropriate clothing, parents would give teachers grief if they sent the kids out in the cold, parental anxiety fuelled administrators fear of lawsuits which changed the nature of the type of activities students were allowed to participate in. The general opinion of "better safe than sorry" took over the school, and the "safest option of all seems to be to keep them inside". For every argument that McGurk comes across throughout her book, she shares a section on how to answer all of those what if questions.
Fellow educator Erik Shonstrom shares his experiences and research on how to begin the journey of a true outdoor revolution and get our kids outdoors. Chapter one begins with an analogy of how we essentially spend the vast majority of our lives living "within the box". Waking up inside a box, standing in a box shower, going to work to stare at our box while sitting in our boxed offices, driving home in a box on wheels, grabbing dinner out of a box, and eating dinner sitting in front of the box that plays our favourite shows. We are always in a box. When we are in the box, we are always indoors. Shonstrom sets up the book by encouraging us that we as a society need to break free of 'the box' and seek life outside. Shonstrom draws from evolutionary biology, psychology, sociology, anatomy, and modern medical practices to develop his research on why we need to revolutionize our educational practices in favour of more time spent outdoors. Shonstrom argues that the lifestyle choices that involve more time spent indoors are detrimental to our society at large, and we need to break free of this lifestyle to advance as a society. Shonstrom provides compelling arguments, evidence from multiple scientific fields, and justification from his personal experiences as an educator that effectively prove why we are in the middle of a true "indoor epidemic" and need to change as a society.
Videos
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This is a video that Columbus Academy has released on the benefits of outdoor education. They share some of the positive benefits they have seen and discuss how they have integrate more outdoor learning time into their school's program.
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This Ted Talk features educator John Hardy sharing his experience of developing and working at an off the grid school in Bali called the Green School. He shares his insights on how students learn to build, garden, create, and still get into college.
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In this video Emma Marris discusses how we need to switch our definition of nature to make it more accessible to our children. We need to recognize that nature is everywhere - we just need to learn to see it.
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In this video architect Takaharu Tezuka explains the design process that went into a unique Japanese kindergarten that has redesigned the school environment to promote more outdoor education.
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