With spring well underway here in Seattle, new life is popping up everywhere from the flowering trees to the blooms lining the sidewalks and edges. Cherry Blossoms, magnolias, rhododendrons, daffodils, hyacinth, and more recently even tulips are making an appearance. Leaves are sprouting all over adding some much needed color to the dull backdrop of the winter months.
Keeping Kids in Nature: 8 Ways to Make Time for the Outdoors
Guilt. That’s the feeling that was creeping up inside and pestering me about spending time outdoors with Bergen (2.5 years old). Thinking that just wandering around experiencing nature is an avoidance or even a luxury. It’s an extra saved only for when we have time.
Shouldn’t I be worried about and occupying myself with more important things? You know, household stuff. Maintenance. Organization. Cleaning. Just getting things done.
Yes, those are valid concerns, but after listening to an inspiring talk by Richard Louv, and diving into his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, I’m convinced that my instinct is correct. While spending time outdoors is indeed a pastime, it’s not just a way to pass the time. It’s serious business, and our health depends on it.
According to Louv, TIME is one of the top reasons kids are kept from nature. Many of us struggle with finding enough hours in the day to accomplish all we want to accomplish, so I thought I’d share eight ways we create more outdoor time for ourselves and our son.
Urban Hike in Charlotte, NC: Little Sugar Creek Greenway
Wanting to spend time in the city, but still enjoy the outdoors in the beautiful, sunny Charlotte, North Carolina weather, we opted for some urban hiking while visiting family during our Southeast trip last December.
An Easy Trash Pick-up Walk: Refocusing our Afternoon Walk to do Some Good
You might already know that we have a late afternoon routine of walking the dog (and ourselves) nearly every day. The reasons (and benefits) are many: exercise, visiting parks and playgrounds for Bergen, catching up on our days and making plans…we even have been known to throw in an errand or two at the post office or grocery store.
These days, depending on time and distance planned, sometimes Bergen walks on his own. However, most of the time, he rides in his stroller, with opportunities to walk & play built in, as we tent to log at least 3 miles on our outings.
When Bergen walks on his own, we can go several blocks at a decent pace, but after a while his speed slows and he’s more interested in interacting with the little things he sees on the grass, sidewalk and properties of our neighbors. He stalls, dilly-dallies, piddles, you name the technique for slowing down (and wasting time), he does it. It’s important to us though that he continues to build his walking stamina and endurance. The last thing we want as active adults is a kid who doesn’t want to walk anywhere.
Yesterday, we tried something new for our afternoon walk. I don’t know about your locale, but as city dwellers (at least in our neighborhood), we tent to get our share of trash that builds up along the sidewalk edges, curbs and intersections. We clean up our block and blocks close by every now and again, but we hadn’t done so in a while, and Bergen had never been a part of it.
So instead of our usual walk, we went on a trash pick-up walk. Bergen and I searched for pieces of trash while Slaed followed close by picking up all that we found and collecting it in a garbage bag. After just a couple of blocks, Bergen got pretty good at spotting garbage on the ground—and with all of the leaves that have fallen, it wasn’t exactly the easiest trash pick-up we’ve done!
A bonus to the while thing was that because pick-up takes time, we were actually going at Bergen’s ideal pace. We were able to focus him on sighting trash, but he also had extra time to explore and do his dawdling–checking out rocks, acorns, flowers, leaves and whatever else he could find. And without the pressure of speed and keeping up, he actually walked a whole lot further than he normally would!
Have you ever picked up trash in your neighborhood or another location? Do you volunteer with your kids? Tell us about it!
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More Walking Adventures:
Still hanging onto Summer at Volunteer Park’s Dahlia Garden
Late last week, I realized that although we enjoyed the dahlias around the neighborhood and at the farmer’s markets, we never got the chance to pop over to the beautiful little garden at Capitol Hill’s Volunteer Park. I discovered the dahlia garden late last summer, and with it now being almost mid-October, I thought for sure the blooms would be long gone.
No visit to Volunteer Park would ever be a wasted visit with one of best playgrounds in the city, towering trees, a conservancy, and water tower among so much more, so we made the trek up to find out for sure. As you can probably guess, we lucked out. Yes, many flowers were worse for wear due to some pretty serious rainfall that Seattle has experienced in the last couple of weeks, but there were just as many amazingly beautiful dahlias to view and admire. And actually, the rain from earlier in the day added a lovely shine to flowers making the colors pop even more.
It turns out that the master garden’s of the Puget Sound Dahlia Association, the people behind the garden, don’t dig up the tubers until early November so as long as some of the blossoms hang on, we have a few more weeks to enjoy the colorful display!
Are you experiencing fall-like weather in your neck of the woods? How are you enjoying the outdoors?
Come join the conversation! We’d love to have you join us on all of our adventures by “liking” our facebook page and following us on twitter! You can also keep up to date with each and every post by subscribing to the blog via email.
Related Posts:
Embracing the Arrival of Spring at the Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum
With the sun beaming in through the windows and gorgeous blue sky greeting us this morning, I knew we had to get outside while it lasted. What better way to enjoy the spring weather than at our nearby Washington Park Arboretum? Little legs can run free while I take some time to check out what’s in bloom, and try to soak in as much warmth and rays before the clouds return.
From the moment those stroller wheels touched ground inside the park boundary, Bergen and his buddy Dylan were in their element. Pointing at the trees, following robins as they fluttered by, and “remarking” about whatever else they noticed. Soon stroller patience was over, and it was time to get out and really explore.
Pink was around every corner. I love the green of Western Washington just as much as the next gal, but it’s nice to have some variety back in our landscape.
It was clear the birds were grateful for this day just like the rest of us at the park (from runners, to cyclists, to dog walkers and school children). Their songs became our background noise and soon the boys were doing their best to sound just like them or at least laugh at my attempts.
Toward the end of our time at the park, Bergen proved he loved being out running the trails even more than I thought. While he’s a happy guy, he’s not one for cuddling or creating tender moments. He’s much too busy for such things and would rather be off getting his hands dirty and making messes. Today was different though. After a shriek, he came barreling down the path in my direction as I was crouched down taking photos and gave me a great big hug.
It didn’t stop there though. No, Bergen had more love to give. After he was finished with me, he scrambled right over to his buddy for his very first “friend hug”.
Do you share his sentiment for the new season?
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*Also if you have a quick second, please take it to vote for us in the Circle of Moms: Top 25 Outdoorsy Moms contest. It’s easy and you can vote once a day. Voting ends 3/27/13. BIG THANKS!