Having fun in the great outdoors

Sariah watering the garden

One thing that Waldorf education espouses is the importance of children spending adequate time in nature. In fact, in Europe and even in the U.S. , special preschool and kindergarten programs are cropping up that are entirely outdoors! (I think that might be a bit much for me, honestly... but the idea sounds really cool.) When I think back to my own childhood, many of my memories have to do with being outdoors, even though technically I was a homebody who preferred to be curled up with a good book. Still, we spent hours in mud puddles, catching tadpoles. I remember the occasional thrill of finding a horny toad in the yard (we lived in Arizona)... I think that's why I was so excited for the kids to find one when we went hunting for geodes a few weeks ago. My brothers spent hours--years, even--digging out a humongous hole in our back yard (we had 2.5 acres to play on). They had a vacant lot a block away that got turned into a bike track, with little hills worn out to ride bikes on. And they spent hours roaming in the desert on nearby ranchland. I remember going with them occasionally, fitting ourselves with canteens of water for the journey. And, yes, we spent hours in the yard on enforced chore duty too, weeding the garden, watering trees, hanging out laundry on a clothesline, and more.

I remember my childhood as being idyllic (even though it probably wasn't). Is it no wonder that I want my kids to have the same?

Many authors and activists recently have been decrying the lack of nature time that children today have. On one science website that I came across a few weeks ago, the point was made that most children come to seventh-grade frog-dissecting having absolutely no experience with frogs in their natural habitat, in real life. So the experience is then completely disconnected from anything meaningful. This is partly because of the way the study of science has developed and the way it is taught to our children. (That would be another post entirely!) But it is also because our children don't get out enough to see things that really should be taken for granted.

Recently I was led to this wonderful website which contains a free, downloadable Parents' Guide to Nature Play. I cannot recommend it highly enough! It is chock full of thoughts and ideas about how to help your kids have fun outside. It talks about what's happened over the past generation, the barriers to kids getting outside, three keys for great nature play, how to kidscape your yard, how to play as a family, and more.

I have also thoroughly enjoyed this book:

Lovejoy has numerous ideas for special theme gardens you can easily create with your kids. A few of my favorites include a pizza garden (everything you would need to make pizza, made in the shape of a pizza), a moon garden (evening-blooming plants, complete with a tipi covered with moonflowers), a medicinal garden (filled with medicinal herbs), etc. We decided to adapt one of her ideas and build a gourd tipi, which will be surrounded with sunflowers.

Dallin finding a spare moment to help with a trench. (Our soil is so rocky that we just dug a trench and filled it with brand new bagged garden soil.) This was one of those moments when I thrilled to find him out there digging all on his own, with no prodding from me.

Sariah helping me get compost to put in the trench.

Planting the seeds--Dallin made the holes, Sariah put in the seeds.

Once the vines have grown up and over the tipi, it will make a fun little hideout. And why gourds? Because in the fall, we will dry them, hollow them out, and make birdhouses out of them. And others we will cut open and paint to make little containers. (All of these ideas and more were in the book!)

In general, I think that planting a garden is the single best thing we've done to get out kids interested in nature! It has also been a bonding experience. Last year, we could be having the worst day ever, but Dallin and I could go out into the garden to look for bad bugs or to see if any new veggies were ready to pick, and somehow all the angst would melt away as we spent that time together. No other activitiy seemed to have that effect. This year, Sariah has been my main right-hand-girl, eager to water, to check for new shoots...she even planted her own square of wheat as we were grinding wheatberries one day to make bread. It was all her idea, and she did it all by herself--and we're letting them grow. I think Dallin will be more interested once the actual veggies start to appear on our plants.

One last book recommendation: Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children by Sharifa Oppenheimer. It's a wonderful book for everything related to parenting young children, but the chapter on outdoor play is especially great! Here are some of the things the author says are needed in the ideal backyard:

• a flat, grassy area (most of us have this... for most of us, it's the only thing we have)
  a hill (now, see, most of us try to get rid of the hills... but maybe let's leave just one small one to roll down?)
• tall grasses, bushes, other places to hide, etc. (I have tall ornamental grass in the front, I used to get mad at the kids for playing in it until I realized how much fun it could be.)
• stuff to build with--sticks, bark, stones, bricks, etc. (I realized I have a pile of bricks in the garage that could be easily transported to a far corner of the backyard.)
• natural play structure, such as a tipi or sunflower house
• stumps--for nailing (she suggests roofing nails, they are blunt), for using as little tables and chairs, etc. (Does anybody know of some great stumps I could have?)
• sand
• water (and she suggests putting the sand and water away from each other so the child has to travel between the two--for exercise, not to discourage putting the sand and water together!)
• tools, both for gardening and building (she suggests buying used tools at thrift stores)
• a wagon, to carry things in, obviously
• a swing, seesaw, or hammock (oh, how I want a hammock!)
• a garden (duh!)
• and allowing/encouraging insect play

Most of these ideas are quite inexpensive to carry out.

I personally am not fond of insects, but I'm trying to put my biases aside for the sake of the children, who love them! So yeah, I let Sariah bring home a snail she found in the yard of the sister I visit teach. I'm just making sure it stays far away from my garden! I have to admit, it was the cutest little thing ever! I let them play with the worms we dig up. I get all excited and bring them outside to see any little creature that happens to appear on one of our plants. And the best part is, our neighbor actually has a birds' nest on top of her light post, and there are four adorable little baby birds up there. How often do kids really get to see brand new baby birds up close and personal?

I have found that as I have made the efforts to bring nature to my children, and to bring them to nature, I have come to have greater appreciation and awe for the beautiful world God has given us. I never thought I myself would find peace in my vegetable garden. Or enjoy waking to the sounds of birds outside my window every morning. But I do!