When I speak to groups about outdoor play or connecting children with nature, I always have them do a short visioning exercise. And yes — you guessed it — I am going to ask you to do it, too! Come on. Play along with me. It will be OK, I promise.
Close your eyes (Hey, no peeking!). Think back to when you were a child. Now, think about your favorite place. Take a minute, and really let yourself remember a special place where you loved to be — to play and explore — to just be a kid. Visualize the place you cannot imagine your childhood without. OK. Got it?
Take note about how you are feeling right now. Is there a smile on your face? Do you feel a giggle bubbling up? Do you remember all the sights and smells? Is it a space you shared with friend or family, or kept secret, just for yourself? Enjoy the feelings for a moment.
Every time I do this activity with a group, you can feel the energy change in the room. I love it. A room-full of adult professionals sit before me, eyes closed, and smiles on their faces. Everyone is so excited to share their special places, and it is almost always the same fantastic list:
• Backyard
• Treehouse
• Garden
• Creek/Lake
• Woods
• Park
The answers are never the sofa, or “my” room, or the mall. People seem to universally choose somewhere outside as their favorite childhood space. It’s some easily accessible bit of nature that builds the strongest memories for people, and they are able to reflect back on and cherish these memories as adults. This fact speaks volumes to me.
Can you imagine who you would be today without your special place? Without the time you were allowed to spend there, just being a kid? Wouldn’t it be a shame if today’s children — this “indoor” generation we keep hearing about — were not given the opportunity to find their own special places outdoors? The thought of it makes me very sad.
I hope you will take the time to help the children in your world find their special places. To adopt a bit of the outdoors as their own. Of course, I hope that you have your own special place too, or are now inspired to go find one. We grown-ups need one just as much as kids do.
In the meantime, enjoy the memories of your childhood place, and make sure to share your stories. See what other folks have to say, and watch for the smile on their faces as they share their own memories and stories. It’s a real treat.
See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru
RT @ balmers New post at The Grass Stain Guru: Reflections on Childhood Spaces http://bit.ly/3wuDAs #playoutdoors Please RT!
RT @balmeras New post at The Grass Stain Guru: Reflections on Childhood Spaces http://bit.ly/3wuDAs #playoutdoors Please RT!
Reflections on Childhood Spaces http://tinyurl.com/dzdmgo via @ShareThis
Reflections on Childhood Spaces http://bit.ly/2kJ9fp
Bethe, this was a wonderful article. Yes I was smiling and feeling a sense of peace and yes my special places were outside. One scene from childhood came to mind instantly. In the summer afternoons as the sun moved creating shade on one side of the house my sister and I would play house and the shade would be the inside of our house and where the sun was shining on the grass would be our outside. What joy and happiness that memory brings to me.
My daughters remember being sent outside to play and creating their own imaginative worlds. How sad to have a childhood without all these memories of climbing trees, making grass salads, and building roads in the dirt.
I look forward to finding more about all that you do. As a family coach I love to meet others who are also in harmony with our purpose which is to unify, strengthen and empower families.
So thank you for the lovely read.
http://grassstainguru.com/?p=147
Reflections on Childhood Spaces
What a wonderful exercise! I remember many wonderful outdoor spaces and I hope my little ones will have similar memories!
RT @balmeras: Would LOVE to know about your favorite childhood place! http://bit.ly/3wuDAs #playoutdoors
Great way to get people to re-connect.
Re-connecting to our own childhood places can help us see how important it is to play outdoors in natural environments, for big kids too! I know I always feel so much more refreshed and ready to conquer the stresses of adult living after spending time connecting with nature – and by connecting I mean letting that giggle from way down bubble up and overflow into everything I do!
Another great post from the Grass Stain Guru!
Across the street from my house in Baltimore was a bird sanctuary, a small woods that wasn’t used much by anyone. I spent every hour I could in there, lying on fallen beech trees eating beech nuts, finding box turtles under the blackberries, building forts out of downed wood. It wasn’t anything special at the time, just the way we spent our time.
Later, when I was in 3rd grade, they built a new elementary school right between my house and the bird sanctuary, so I spent even more time there. Sometimes during recess, we would slip through a gap in the fence between the school and the woods, and steal an hour of real play time, while the rest of the kids were playing ball.
Later, I got a degree in forest science, then got my PhD in tree physiology, and have spent my life studying trees and forests. The bird sanctuary got me off to a good start, and I still remember the taste of the beech nuts and blackberries.
I get my kids out in the woods as much as I can, but there is nothing like that bird sanctuary across from our house.
The bird sanctuary is still there. Although I no longer live in Baltimore, I hope the kids in my old neighborhood are still getting out in that little patch of nature in the big city. http://bit.ly/uqc6d
RT @balmeras: @tomkimmerer just left the coolest comment at The Grass Stain Guru, story of childhood place to profession http://bit.ly/UL46x
Tom: Thank you for sharing your story. Amazing!! There is a real concern in the conservation movement re: the fact that this & future generations will not go into conservation careers due to the growing nature deficit issue.
The more we get kids outside, the better off we are for a lot of reasons.
Cheers- Bethe
My great aunt’s home in the Pocono’s backed right up to the woods and a creek ran right next to her home. About a 1/4 mile back in the woods there was a stream with a primitive monkey bridge across and a pumping station that we could swim in. My cousins build a cabin in the woods and we were always in the woods as kids. In the winters it would freeze back there and we could ice skate.
I don’t remember when my parents started letting me go in the woods alone, but I would say by the time I was nine I was going alone. No one ever taught me my way, I had just been there so often that I knew how to get to all our special spots and back.
We now take our kids to our nearby woods frequently and they love it – we always learn something when we’re there.
This is totally cool! You want to know the funny thing….the first thing that popped into my head was with lil boo….not myself!! We have so much fun goofing off in the backyard, playing with insects, looking at airplanes in the sky, watching clouds float by, pretending about the moon …. it goes on and on!
DB: Love that visions of your own child’s favorite place popped into your head. You must be doing something right!
Cheers- Bethe