The Grass Stain Guru

Nature Play. Environmental Education. School Gardens. Recess.

Simply opening the door and saying, “Go outside and play!”

There are so many ways for children to engage with the natural world. There are just as many ways for adults to facilitate it.

I often hear, “Children don’t play outside anymore.”

To which I say, “So, what are you going to do about it?”

Listen, I love to talk about the why and complexity of the issue — that’s no secret. But at some point, we need to stop gasping over the problem, musing about the whys, and focus on the solution.

When the 2006 Kesier Family Foundation (KFF) report came out stating that children spend 6.5 hours a day in front of electronic media, we all gasped. It got lots of press and the stat has been cited and quoted many times over.

But what happened? Um, the time went up. Again. In their report released earlier this year, KFF reports the daily screen time for children has gone up to 7.5 hours.

All the media and academic attention. All the head shaking…and we lost another 7 hours per week of childhood.

ENOUGH.

In honor of Children & Nature Awareness Month (which is every month in my book!), let’s think less and do more!

• More confronting screen time with your children and yourself
• More modeling enjoying nature and outdoor time
• More hikes
• More digging in the dirt
• More climbing trees
• More singing around camp fires
• More birdwatching
• More fishing
• More chasing rainbows and puddle jumping
• More living

Who’s with me?

See ya outside! ~ The Grass Stain Guru

PS: If you need some concrete ideas, check out the Spring Activity Guide from the great folks at Nature Rocks.

photo credit: tiffanywashko