Nurturing Your Nature: The Benefits of Playing Outdoors
By Meredith Sorensen
nificant physical health benefits. Exposure to a range of bacteria is essential to human health and building up immunity, especially in children. Luckily there’s a fast-track solution for anyone seeking to get out of hyper-sanitized environments: soil! A single teaspoon of rich garden soil contains more than 1 billion bacteria. Let them dig. They might get messy and dirty, and the bathwater at the end of the day might turn brown; but their little bodies will be that much more dynamic with exposure to microbes.
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Practicing mindfulness can spur mental benefits akin to prac- ticing meditation. An easy place to take a moment and notice your surroundings with fresh eyes lies out your front door. The natural world – from varying weather patterns, to different seasons, to insects and small creatures – offers an endless canvas of opportuni- ties to observe. In turn, the act of putting your full attention towards something, or being mindful, is linked to reducing anxiety and improving cognition.
Here are some concrete ideas for encouraging more outdoor
play. I’ve listed them in a crescendo of age-appropriate activities based on experiences with my two-year-old and the older neigh- borhood children. Some can be done in a moment; others will play out over time.
• LOOK: Pick up a big rock and look underneath for bugs. Watch as they curl up in fright, and then slowly relax as they feel safe. Marvel at their antennae and imagine the information they are receiving. Touch the slimy snails, hold the wriggling worms, and let the last ladybug of the season climb to the tip of your finger, and fly. Wonder at their worlds.
• SPLASH: Don your rain boots and stomp in rain puddles. Bend down and watch closely as the raindrops hit the surface of the water. Look up and feel each drop hit your skin.
20 Natural Nutmeg - September 2017
dults frequently say, “Go play outside,” to their children without fully realizing the benefits that can come from out- door play and getting dirty. Digging into dirt can have sig-
• COUNT: Be still and count how many insects and animals you see.
• PLAY: Romp. Roll. Tumble. Try a cartwheel. Use your body to move, hop over rocks.
• DIG: Dig holes. As a bonus, plant some bulbs. The fall is the unsung gardening hero season to put little goodies in the ground that will delight come spring.
• CREATE ART: As a corollary to planting bulbs, make a map of your property and mark and color in where you’ve planted the bulbs with the appropriate colors. Come spring, watch as these bulbs come up and compare with the map. Talk about the tem- perature of the soil, and how these flowers are like thermome- ters for the soil “popping” up as the earth warms up. Remember to put a “north” arrow on your map.
• EXPERIMENT: Put a ½”-layer of compost on half of your lawn (or mark out a section of it with some string). Rake it out and add water, letting the compost settle into the soil. After a few weeks, compare the grass in areas with compost with non- amended grass. How does the ground feel (harder or softer)? How does the color compare (darker or lighter green)? What other differences do you notice?
• ADD COMPOST: If you don’t want to subject your lawn to a sci- ence experiment (see “EXPERIMENT” above) and would prefer to add compost to the whole area, go for it. Take this as an op- portunity to do a real-world math problem with your child that involves measuring, converting inches to feet, calculating the total volume, and then dividing by 27 to figure out how many cubic yards are needed (there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, and bulk compost is sold by the cubic yard). If you need guid- ance on these calculations, head over to http://www.harvest-
power.com/how-much-soil-mulch-needed/
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