IN TODAY’S TECHNOLOGICALLY DRIVEN WORLD, parents face a


whole new set of barriers to being emotionally available and responsive TO THEIR


children.


University of Kansas and the Univer- sity of Utah showed that people who spent four days hiking and away from their electronic devices scored 50 percent better on creative problem- solving tests after they returned. These findings make sense to


our brains have to work harder to navigate built environments. Selhub and Logan cite the difference between voluntary attention—the sustained focus needed to work on a computer, for example—and involuntary at- tention—the softer focus we employ when walking outside in nature, al- lowing our senses to do the “thinking” for us. A brain that employs voluntary focus for too long without a break is quicker to anger and show impulsive behavior. But involuntary attention gives the brain a chance to restore itself. I talked with Mia Moran, a graphic designer and blogger in Arlington, Massachusetts, who’s raising her three 36 · LAND&PEOPLE · FALL/WINTER 2013


kids with minimal screen time and plenty of unstructured free time in nature. On the odd occasion she takes her kids to a playground, she says they tend to bypass the play structures and “gravitate to the bushes to set up imaginary games.” Moran thinks her kids will get the hang of tech- nology—as well as how to play on a jungle gym—in time. But she appreci- ates that they’re learning to entertain themselves on their own. “I think it’s about them figuring out how to solve their own problems,” she says, “which we’re doing less and less of.” Research backs her up. A recent study by psychologists from the


Louise Chawla, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and co-editor of the journal Chil- dren, Youth & Environments. “We know that children play more creatively in natural environments,” she says. “There are just more ‘loose parts’ out there for them to exercise their creative imaginations. A stick can serve 100 different purposes, as can a stone, earth, or water.” (As she spoke, I recalled my toddler’s glee collecting acorn “hats” and planting rock “vegetables” at the park.) Kids who spend ample time outdoors also develop the kind of resilience and confidence that comes from figuring out how to solve prob- lems without the direct assistance of caregivers or teachers. Greg Lais, whose Minneapolis-based organiza- tion Wilderness Inquiry has been taking kids and families into nature for 35 years, says nature is the perfect confidence-builder. “Many kids these days don’t want to go outside. They’re afraid,” he says. And their over-structured schedules only reinforce that feeling. “Every parent now thinks they have to have their kid at the hockey camp or repetitive skill drilling. Just the idea of going outside and playing alone is foreign.” But when he brings families into nature, Lais watches all that fear and protective bubble-wrap fall away—


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