Spring has sprung and I’m awed by the wisdom of two year olds!  The ONLY place they want to be is “outzide,” chasing birds, comparing sticks, picking dandelion blossoms, digging in the dirt.

Watching.

Alert for all that unfolds before them-whether it be garbage trucks or crawling ants!

Follow the lead of the child and you’ll be partner to amazing discoveries.

Kids need time and space to discover their comfort in the outdoors without scripted direction.  Many parents remember fondly the adventures of their own extended free time outdoors. Meghan Frances writes the following:

As a child, I loved going outdoors for its own sake, but looking back, I value the gifts it gave me: a strong, healthy body; an up-close-and-personal relationship with the birds and bugs and plants of Northern Michigan; a resilience borne of the many scraped shins and bike crashes I never let slow me down; and the joy of knowing that every day held adventure and excitement right outside my front door.

Nevertheless, the same parents report by the time their children reach school age they don’t want to play outdoors, that they seem incapable of making their own fun.

In the April 23, 2009 issue of Good Housekeeping, Meghan Frances offers suggestions on countering the resistance to unstructured outdoor play; she addresses issues ranging from parent fears regarding safety to children’s resistance (video games, nobody to play with, no time in a busy schedule).  A reprint of her article, How to Get Kids Outdoors, is available through the Children and Nature Network (the organization that formed after Richard Louv published his best selling book: Last Child in the Woods; Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder).  As with any “behavioral intervention”, expect to see acceleration in resistance before new behaviors emerge!  The investment of time and attention will be well worth it.

Less is more

Less is more is a statement we at Little Little Little passionately believe to be true. Parents who carve time for their children to just “go play”, drawing upon their own resources and ideas, give a fabulous gift!  What a bargain!

Photo credit: Kudos to the extraordinary macieklew, who posted the shot on Flickr.com and allowed sites like mine to use it through Creative Commons copyright.