I have been a proponent of nature play in and out of school time for twenty years.
But you all know this. I write about the benefits of nature, unstructured play, and reasonable risk for optimal child development all the time. In fact, it’s what The Grass Stain Guru blog is all about.
I stumbled on this lovely and powerful video that explores nature play in three schools in Scotland. It bares mentioning that the narrator states how the UK is far behind European schools embracing nature play. And let it said, the USA is far behind the UK in embracing nature play and reasonable risk for children.
Please watch this video for inspiration and ideas to bring nature to your school or center grounds.
7.5 = number of hours of screen time school aged children experience daily
32 = number of hours of television preschoolers watch weekly
19 = percentage of infants one year and under with televisions in their rooms
25,000 = average number of television commercials a preschooler sees
I’ve tried lots of approaches to talk about this issue. I thought I would try something different this time. And a bit cheeky.
As an advocate for healthy, happy childhoods I will do just about anything to get the message out — and to make people actually listen.
Unplug. Set screen time limits. Get your kids outdoors for unstructured play experiences.
Explore your green community spaces.
