50 Way to Enjoy Spring   

 

50 Way to Enjoy Spring   

As the weather warms up across the country the outdoor opportunities are endless. Take advantage of the beautiful weather and get in some outdoor time! Get the kids outside and have them genuinely experience what spring has to offer. Here are fifty different ideas to enjoy this spring. Dirty feet and messy hair is proof you are doing it right!

1.    Visit a pond and watch the ducks

2.    Create “food” out of outdoor material

3.    Climb a tree

4.    Eat breakfast outside in your PJs

5.    Jump rope

6.    Ride a bike

7.    Explore an empty lot

8.    Visit a Farmers Market

9.    Watch the sunset

10. Play flashlight tag!

11.  Lay in the grass and look at the clouds

12.  Go on a bug hunt

13.  Jump in a rain puddle

14.  Make boats and test them in the pond

15.  Float down a creek

16.  Make mud pies

17.  Try to find a four leave clover

18.  Try to whistle a blade of grass

19.  Learn to identify different leaves

20. Grow some seeds in the windowsill

21.  Go to an outdoor movie theater

22. Make music using outdoor materials

23.  Create a nature art picture

24.  Visit a state park

25.  Go camping!

26.  Plant a tree

27. Create a bug hotel

28. Run barefoot in the grass!

29. Make an outdoor fort

30. Create fairy soup

31.  Roast marshmallows by the fire

32.   Visit your local zoo

33.  Make sand castles

34.  Visit a plant nursery

35.  Dig for worms

36.  Go on a color hike

37.  Sit outside and enjoy the stars

38.   Look for fireflies

39.  Camp in the backyard

40. Swim in a lake

41.  Follow a butterfly

42.  Skip rocks on a pond

43.  Go bird listening

44.  Try catching rain drops

45.  Find a pet rock

46.  Look at things through a magnifying glass

47.  Go Geocaching

48.  Fly a kite

49.  Create an obstacle course

50. Try game night outside

Free Play

Getting out and partaking in the simple act of playing. What an idea right?! To us adults, playing is seen as an event that we used to enjoy as young children. Unfortunately, the light-hearted activities were soon replaced by work, bills, and other responsibilities. Children of today are most likely spending their days inside looking at a screen and not outside being active or engaging in creative free play like we did in our youth. We all play witness to these sedentary, screen dominated lifestyles and understand that it is an infamous characteristic of the millennials. To me it is honestly quite startling and makes we worry about our children’s future.

I still have a hope for radical change in our children’s lives because of the movement dedicated solely to bringing the concept of “play” back into the lives of children and adult. Yes, adults need to play too! While this movement is very honorable and we nod along in aggreeance while others do the work, very few of us actually take the steps to change the course of the future generations.

Over the course of history, children have always been taught by adults. The adults are the ones in charge, giving the kids the iPad at dinner to quiet them, while they wait to be served. Adults are the ones allowing the kids to spend hours sitting on the couch watching endless TV because it provides peace and quiet. Yes, there are smart and productive ways to use the advanced technology we have today to further a child’s learning and cognitive development. There are many educational programs on TV, several websites, and apps that we can use for educational purposes. However, nothing is better than getting the hands on, care free, energetic play time. Yes, true play that encourages learning and discovery is very messy! There will be clean up involved and loud noises, but children need these experiences, their body literally craves it. Studies show that unstructured play leads to greater sense of social and environmental responsibility, a greater capacity for language, increased creativity and motor skills, along with many more benefits we just can’t cover briefly. (Check out Dr. Peter Grey’s TEDtalk about the immense benefits of play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg-GEzM7iTk )

The Adventure Playground in Berkeley, California is making a huge leap in the play movement by offering a truly “free play” playground with tons of loose parts that are manipulated by the children. This concept is derived from a study by Lady Marjory Allen. This study is focused around European children playing in a vacant lot after World War 2. The children displayed more interest in the parts that they could use freely to their own imaginations than the materials built for them in nearby parks. Sterility was never meant to encourage creativity. This type of play includes loose parts for manipulation, risk taking decisions and inspiring imagination. The idea also incorporates that play can take place in any vacant area. However adding the extra texture of nature is sure to enrich the play even more.

So as adults we should be encouraging our children to get outside and play in the backyard or local parks, to use their imaginations to create worlds only they can enter. Adults can play too. It is important as adults to be helpers in the imaginary world. As adults we spend much of our day in the disciplinary role but when it comes to this play we need to step back and be amazed by the children’s ideas, this boosts their confidence and even trust in themselves. See how much they can do without your help, it is also important to allow your child to fail in order to learn their limits and derive solutions. And yes, embrace your own inner kid and see how you can help enrich the experience for your children! You might even see a decrease in resistance at bed time.

 

Have you Played Today?

Now that we have learned of this amazing concept, the real question is how to incorporate this into our day? Well, it is always good to start small and see where you get. Boxes, fabric, paints, tape and really anything you can build with are the ideal tools to start with. Instead of setting the kids up in front of the TV while waiting for dinner, bring out materials for building. Encourage them to go outside with neighborhood friends, to use the endless supplies found lying right in the backyard or nearby park. Then sit back and watch the children come back to life.

 

Want to join the movement and learn more about the importance of play? Join the US Play Coalition at http://usplaycoalition.org/.

 

Nature Inspiration

As we settle back to our weekly duties, we may be searching for the inspiration to continue on in our busy week. So where to look? Nature of course! With temperatures warming, soon our backyards are going to be full of budding life! Flowers blossoming, birds chirping and bugs buzzing. Inspiration can be found just by looking outside. Look to the bees to encourage you to work hard during your day to reap your “honey” later.  Hear those birds chirping in the early morning? Take that as encouragement to join them and get a head start on the day.

An important thing to remember as we look at Mother Nature is that everything we see is directly affected by our day-to-day decisions. A lot of people talk about recycling our plastics, cans, and cardboard. We have been told to turn the lights out when exiting a room, and lower the heat in our houses to conserve energy. These are all great tips to use in reducing our carbon footprint. How about we go further than just reducing, what would happen if we gave back? What if we get outside and embrace the outdoors. Plant more trees, clean up parks, and enrich the habitats we have in our own backyards? These are only a few ideas of how you can give back and help the environment around you to thrive.

 

Try It Out!

The more space we take with our apartment complexes and parking garages, the less homes are left for the native animals. Creating spaces for nature to thrive in your own backyard is an easy way to give back and you can enjoy the critters that come by to visit. Try creating food garlands. This a great way to create a space for birds, bees and even butterflies. Check out this blog by HGTV on ways to create your own garland.

Another way to create a thriving space is by creating a bug hotel. Bug hotels create the perfect “nest” for any insect. They can be created by using any recycled materials or with a more fancy flair to also create an artist piece for your backyard. The Red Ted Art blog goes into even more detail on just how easy they can bee (pun totally intended)! Hope you all feel inspired for another great week ahead.