Three questions you should ask yourself, too

As one of the  Be Out There moms for the National Wildlife Foundation, I just received three questions about the outdoors. Should be easy enough to answer, but I found myself really having to think about the answers. Intention. It’s a good thing.

Want to be intentional about getting your kids out more often? Then ask yourself these same three questions and see what answers you come up with. Then, share them in the comments. That way, we’ll all benefit from each others thoughtful consideration!

Why do you get your kids outside…
First, there’s the health benefits. That’s easy for my daughter – she’s on swim team. For my son, it’s a whole other issue. Because of his special needs (Asperger’s), he is in no way interested in sports or outdoor activities. He’d much rather be crunching numbers figuring out some complicated mathematical concept.

How I get my kids outside…
Tie it into something they are interested in. For my daughter, that means finding friends to meet her outside. I don’t care if they sit on the curb and talk or ride bikes…just so long as they are breathing in that fresh air! For my son, it means tying it into his special interests. Fossil hunting is a big one. Fortunately, we have a creek bed behind our house. On a good day, we can find four or five solid specimens. Or astronomy. We love to go figure out the stars and planets on a clear night. The beach is good after the rain when we can find good shells and silver dollars.

At one point, the kids in the neighborhood created an outdoor fort they called Fortsburg in the greenbelt at the end of our street. For days, the kids built rock chairs and stick tables. They’d gather after school and have parties. Until it got destroyed by a bad rain. They tried rebuilding it once, but the teens in the neighborhood raided it.

Why I make outside a priority…
To me, outdoors is a beautiful expression of creativity. I love how what we see in the geometrical shape of a flower or a shell is repeated in the stars. I love the stories of the generations that can be found in historical sites and fossils. I love the contemplation of just how vast the universe is when I look up to the stars. And then there are the memories….of a cool Spring breeze, a gentle clean-smelling rain, the heat on your skin when you’ve been inside a cold building, the crunch of crispy leaves, the smell of Mountain Laurel. A childhood just isn’t a childhood without those memories.

Okay – your turn!

I should mention (for those of you who care), my role as a founding mother for the National Wildlife Foundation is strictly unpaid and voluntary. Okay – they did send my son a panda bear after his surgery and some Ranger Rick magazines. But me – I didn’t even get the retro Ranger Rick t-shirt that apparently all the other moms got.  So I can confidently say no commercial messages were harmed in the making of this disclaimer.

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You’re currently reading “Three questions you should ask yourself, too,” an entry on SA Busy Kids

Published:
April 8, 2010 / 1:22 am
Category:
Be Out There, Educational, Science, Things I want to remember
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