Playing in natural spaces supports a child’s sense of self, allowing children to recognise their independence alongside an interdependence and connectedness with their ecological worlds. Stuart Lester
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Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything. Albert Einstein
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Children still need a childhood with dirt, mud, puddles, trees, sticks, and tadpoles. Brooke Hampton
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I think the best thing a parent can do, when raising a child, is simply get out of their way. Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Kids are born scientists. They’re born probing the natural world that surrounds them. They’ll lift up a rock. They’ll pick up a bug. They’ll pull petals off of a flower. They’ll ask you why the grass is green and the sky is blue, and they’ll experiment with breakable things indoor house. I think the best thing a parent can do, when raising a child, is simply get out of their way. Neil Degrasse Tyson
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Time in nature is not a luxury. It is a necessity. And we must give our children time to explore, discover, and get to know the world, which brings endless delights and lessons that never cease. Ainsley Arment
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Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of hidden stuff. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Nature breeds curiosity; it helps to grow explorers rather than robots. It reminds us that we are part of something bigger. It grounds us, calms us. Ben PalmerFry
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Nature play is not another thing to shove into the crevices of an already overloaded schedule. A childhood built upon nature play is a different way to do childhood altogether. Ginny Yurich
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At the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair should be messy, and your eyes sparkling.
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Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat. Laura Ingalls Wilder
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All children need nature. Not just the ones whose parents appreciate nature. Not only those children of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child. Richard Louv
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Let’s raise children who can name more stars in the sky than stars on the screen. Nicolette Sowder
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There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story. Linda Hogan
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We can never have enough of nature. Henry David Thoreau
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Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grassstained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature. Richard Louv
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The most memorable days end with the dirtiest clothes.
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Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls. Erin Kenny
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Nature is the best playground.
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Playing is the most important work you will ever do.
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There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. Walt Streightiff.
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Children naturally live in the moment and they allow that moment to be what it is; magical and beautiful in every way! April Peerless.
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There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where the colors are brighter, the air is softer and the morning more fragrant than ever. Elizabeth Lawrence
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Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting. Richard Paul Evans
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We must teach our children to smell the earth, to taste the rain, to touch the wind, to see things grow, to hear the sun rise and night fall – to care. John Cleal
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Why try to explain miracle to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden. Robert Brault
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We cannot protect something we do not love, we cannot love what we do not know, and we cannot know what we do not see. Or hear. Or sense. Richard Louv
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If you haven’t seen anything incredible today go outside
Inspiring Outdoor Play Quotes (Short)
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Children grow up hearing how broken the environment is, how broken beyond repair. Plant strawberries together, make wild medicines, paint the sunrise. Show them proof that for every act of destruction, they can sow a seed, however small, of beauty. Nicolette Sowder
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No matter how old you get, may you always stop to fill your pockets with smooth stones, empty snail shells & other little treasures. Nicolette Sowder
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Not all classrooms have four walls. Margaret McMillan.
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If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. Vincent Van Gogh.
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Your kids will remember the adventures you went on, not the stuff you bought them. Kids outgrow stuff they never outgrow adventures.
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Encourage your child to have muddy, grassy, or sandy feet by the end of each day; that’s the childhood they deserve. Penny Whitehouse
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Children come alive by being in nature, beckoning us back into its wild places. It awakens their minds, centers their hearts and gives depth of the soul. It’s not an abondment of academic work but rather a help to it. Ainsley Arment
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Step over ants, put worms back in the grass, rescue baby caterpillars, release spiders back into your garden, open windows for bees to fly home.
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If we provide enough space and possibilities for moving freely, then the children will move as well as animals – skillfully, simply, securely, naturally. Dr. Emmi Pikler
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Kids don’t remember their best day of television.
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We will conserve only what we love. We love only what we know. We know only what we are taught. Baba Dioum
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We all had a playroom growing up. It was called outside.
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The best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky. Margaret McMillan.
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Lose yourself in nature and find peace. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I am happy out here. Dirty feet, messy hair & wild water on my skin. Out here with the wild things; this is where I belong. Brooke Hampton
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Time outdoors in nature offers endless opportunities to learn and grow, and supports the development of the whole child – cognitive, physical, social, emotional and creative. Erin Saunders
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Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. John Muir
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Encouraging a child to go outside in all weather builds resilience, but more importantly, it saves them from spending their lives merely tolerating the bad days in favor of a handful of good ones – a life of endless expectations and conditions where happiness hinges on sunshine. Nicolette Sowder
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I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel when introducing a young child to the natural world. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Rachel Carson
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It’s a wondrous thing how the wild calms a child.
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In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. Margaret Atwood
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There’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. Alfred Wainwright
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Before we ever put a pencil in a child’s hands, those hands should dig, climb, press, pull, squish, twist, and pinch in a wide array of environments and with a variety of materials. Amanda Morgan
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I love the kind of tired that comes from a lot of fresh air and a little too much sun.
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Let nature be your teacher. William Wordsworth
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Bad weather always looks worse through a window. Tom Lehrer
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If we want our children to move mountains, we first have to let them get out of their chairs. Nicolette Sowder
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Direct contact with nature has direct benefits for children’s physical, mental and emotional health. Free play opportunities in natural settings offer possibilities for restoration, and hence, wellbeing. Stuart Lester
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Play isn’t the easy route! Its complicated, complex and often difficult to watch unfold. It takes patience, trust and a level of skill to allow a child to truly lead their own learning. Sally Wright
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Their minds were not built to sit and be taught. They were built to explore, play, and learn. Layla Gordon Lu
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Young people, I want to beg of you always keep your eyes open to what Mother Nature has to teach you. By so doing you will learn many valuable things every day of your life. George Washington Carver
Inspiring Outdoor Play Quotes for Students
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Our challenge isn’t so much to teach children about the natural world, but to find ways to sustain the instinctive connections they already carry. Terry Krautwurst.
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Children more than ever need opportunities to be in their bodies in the world – jumping rope, bicycling, stream hopping, and fort building. It’s this engagement between limbs of the body and bones of the earth where true balance and centeredness emerge. David Sobel
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Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach of us more than we can ever learn from books. John Lubbock
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No barefooted, tree climbing, mud pie baking, cloud spotting, puddle stomping, bird calling, wild foraging, star gazing, firefly chasing, den building, stream paddling, rock hunting moment with Mother Nature ie ever wasted. Nicolette Sowder.
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Every child needs nature. Not just the ones whose parents appreciate nature. Not only those of a certain economic class or culture or set of abilities. Every child. Richard Louv
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Don’t just tell children about the world. Show them. Penny Whitehouse
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Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, tryitout, doityourself character that our future needs. James L Hymes Jr.
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Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. Frank Lloyd Wright
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Go and open the door. Maybe outside there’s a tree, or a wood, or a magic city. Miroslav Golub
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Most of what children need to learn during their early childhood years cannot be taught; its discovered through play. Ruth Wilson.
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We could have never loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it. George Eliot
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If you wish your children to think deep thoughts, to know the holiest emotions, take them to the woods and hills, and give them the freedom of the meadows; the hills purify those who walk upon them. Richard Jefferies
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We are all meant to be naturalists, each with his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things. Charlotte Mason
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Kids don’t need more toys – they need more adventures! Sarah Mueller
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If we provide enough space and possibilities for moving freely, then the children will move as well as animals: skillfully, simply, securely, naturally. Dr. Emmi Pikler
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What do parents owe their young that is more important than a warm and trusting connection to the Earth? Theodore Roszak
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Leave the road, take the trails. Pythagoras
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You see gardening, but wee see: Connecting with nature, following directions, caring & harvesting, creative thinking, problem solving, healthy eating, measuring, counting, reading.
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Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws. She hums the old wellknown air through innumerable variations. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Keep your children wild don’t make them grow up too fast. Let them spend their days in the sunshine using their imagination. They are the change! Those wild children daydreaming in the sunshine will grow into grounded adults with minds and spirits capable of creating a better future. Brooke Hampton
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There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend. Bob Ross
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If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. David Sobel
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Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives. Thomas Berry
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And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. John Muir
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As children observe, reflect, record, and share nature’s patterns and rhythms, they are participating in a process that promotes scientific and ecological awareness, problem solving, and creativity. Deb Matthews Hensley
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Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Kahil Gran
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And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain there would be no rainbow. Gilbert K Chesterton
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If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but the same amount of snow.
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Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. Fred Rogers.
Inspiring Outdoor Play Quotes for Instagram
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No, we don’t need more sleep. It’s our souls that are tired, not our bodies. We need nature. We need magic. We need adventure. We need freedom. We need truth. We need stillness. We don’t need more sleep, we need to wake up and live. Brooke Hampton
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Anything you teach in an indoor classroom can be taught outdoors, often in ways that are more enjoyable for children. Cathy James
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Restore balance. Most kids have technology, school and extracurricular activities covered. It’s time to add a pinch of adventure, a sprinkle of sunshine and a big handful of outdoor play. Penny Whitehouse
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Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it is raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning. Maria Montessori
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They’re not just playing in nature, they are: Learning, creating, sensing, believing, relaxing, exploring, observing, wondering, connecting, discovering, appreciating, understanding, experimenting… Penny Whitehouse.
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Mother Nature has the best box of crayons.
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Instead of buying your children all the things you never had… Maybe you should teach them all the things you were never taught.
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Play is the highest form of research. Albert Einstein.
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All good things are wild and free. Henry David Thoreau
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The mud will wash off but the memories will last a lifetime.
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The outdoors offers limitless potential to young children. It becomes a place where they can go to relax their mind, to be inspired and to deep dive into the world of imagination. Its a place where they can design, create and explore. The possibilities are endless. Angela Hanscom.
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When children play in natural spaces, they’re far more likely to invent their own games than in more structured settings – a key factor in becoming selfdirected and inventive adults later in life. Richard Louv
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Nature is a tool to get children to experience not just the wider world, but themselves. Stephen Moss
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Live in the sunshine. Swim the sea. Drink the wild air. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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I like people who get excited about the change of seasons, the sound of the ocean, watching the sunset, the smell of rain and starry nights. Brooke Hampton
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Play outside instead.
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When life gives you a rainy day, play in the mud puddles!
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Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity. Kay Redfield Jamison.
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Children play instinctively with natural elements – they are natural experts. 82 per cent said that their favourite places to play were natural spaces, such as gardens, parks and local fields. Adrian Voce
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Children deserve to grow and learn in a place and alongside a force that is as wild and alive as they are. Nicolette Sowder
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In nature, children learn to take risks, overcome fears, make new friends, regulate emotions, and create imaginary worlds. Angela J. Hanscom
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As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unselfconsciously to the soughing of the trees. Valerie Andrews
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In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. John muir
To raise a nature-bonded child is to raise a rebel, a dreamer, an innovator – someone who will walk their own verdant, winding path. Nicolette Sowder
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What would our lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are in technology? Richard Louv
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And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Khalil Gibran
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When a flower does’nt bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower. Alexander Den Heijer.
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Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them. The Audubon Nature Preschool.
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Children are born with a sense of wonder and an affinity for nature. Properly cultivated, these values can mature into ecological literacy. And eventually into sustainable patterns of living. Zenobia Barlow
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It’s time to return to childhood, to simplicity, to running and climbing and laughing in the sunshine, to experiencing happiness instead of being trained for a lifetime of happiness. It’s time to let children be children again. LR Knost
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Show the children every winged thing. The bees, dragonflies, queen ants, bluebirds, luna moths & swallowtails. Creatures that inspire them to defy gravity. Nicolette Sowder
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We know, too, that young people on average can recognize over 1,000 corporate logos but only a handful of plants and animals native to their places. Peter H. Kahn Jr.
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Now I see the secret of making the best person: it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth. Walt Whitman
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Outside, quiet children start to talk more and children who find it hard to be constrained begin to relax. Children need to be outside long enough to feel at home there. Emma Shaw
The Crucial Role of Parents in Fostering Outdoor Play and Nature Bonding
In the hustle and bustle of modern life, where screens dominate and schedules are packed, the role of parents in facilitating and encouraging outdoor play has become more crucial than ever. Beyond just providing a break from indoor routines, parental involvement in outdoor play lays the foundation for a myriad of benefits, contributing to a child’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
Setting the Stage for Exploration: Parents play a pivotal role in setting the stage for outdoor exploration. By creating an environment that encourages curiosity and discovery, they open the door for children to engage with nature freely. This might involve establishing a backyard garden, planning family hikes, or simply encouraging unstructured play in a nearby park.
Nurturing a Love for Nature: When parents actively participate in outdoor activities with their children, they nurture a genuine love for nature. Whether it’s identifying different bird species, observing insects, or exploring seasonal changes, these shared experiences create lasting memories and a positive association with the outdoors.
Building Stronger Bonds: Outdoor play provides a unique opportunity for parents and children to bond in a natural setting. Shared adventures like camping trips, nature walks, or even a simple game of catch foster a sense of togetherness and strengthen the parent-child relationship. These shared moments contribute to a deep, emotional connection that goes beyond the confines of indoor spaces.
Promoting Physical Fitness: Parents can actively promote physical fitness by engaging in outdoor activities with their children. Whether it’s riding bikes, playing sports, or embarking on a family hike, these shared endeavors contribute to the development of motor skills, coordination, and a healthy lifestyle.
Encouraging Unstructured Play: While structured activities have their place, parents can also play a crucial role in encouraging unstructured outdoor play. Allowing children the freedom to explore, create, and imagine in a natural setting fosters independence, creativity, and a sense of adventure.
Teaching Environmental Stewardship: By involving children in outdoor activities, parents impart valuable lessons about environmental stewardship. Whether it’s picking up litter during a nature walk or planting trees together, these actions instill a sense of responsibility and respect for the natural world.
Parental involvement in outdoor play goes beyond the physical act of being present. It is about fostering a love for nature, building stronger family bonds, and providing children with a foundation for a healthier, more balanced life. By actively participating in outdoor activities, parents contribute not only to their children’s immediate happiness but also to their long-term well-being and connection to the world around them.