Aug 28 2010
It’s healthy to get your kids outside, but a challenge when they are tweenagers
I love all the tips for getting kids outdoors to enjoy nature and wildlife. Especially this one by Holly Ambrose, from Tropic of Mom, one of my fellow Founding Mothers of the National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There Campaign.
I was pretty good at that stuff when my kids were little. Mainly because they were cooperative. Now they are tweens with attitude…and they’d rather be on the computer, watching television or texting friends. They are the first generation of true netizens, the three-screen generation. And they are missing out on so much of the beauty of outdoors. It wasn’t a few weeks ago when I asked one of my children what the weather was like outside. Without even looking up from the computer, my child said cloudy. In fact, it was one of the sunniest, most beautiful days we’d had in a long time.
I find it much harder to entice my kids outside. While they are both intensely curious, that inherent reporter’s sense doesn’t extend to butterflies, lizards, flowers or bird nests so much anymore. Not cool enough, I guess.
Yet, it’s critical. A recent study finally shows – conclusively – that unstructured outdoor play is absolutely essential to children’s health and development. And when it’s missed, kids are sicker and more stressed.
Time to get creative. Here are some tips for encouraging older kids to get outdoors more…
- Buy some big cattails. Send them outside and let them shake until they can’t shake anymore. It’s a teenage version of bubbles.
- Find a friend and go for a walk or ride bikes to the neighborhood pool or playground. No pool or playground, no problem. Just walk and talk. Away from mom.
- Schedule a block party for kids only. Lemonade, cookies, comfortable lawn chairs and a sprinkler. (That one gets a big thumbs up from Twirl.)
- Go hunting for fossils. Texas has tons of dry creek beds. Find one nearby or drive a little further. Then, go walking in one of those dry creekbeds. You’re bound to find some good fossils or two. Take some water with you. It’s hot.
- Have your kids poke a hole in the cap of a water bottle with a pen, then go outside and squirt the water out, drawing pictures on the streets. (Twirl came up with this one.) Wet chalk works just as good, too.
- Get up really early one morning (this works better in the winter), go outside and look at the sky. The darker the area you are in, the better. Identify planets and stars. Hint: planets don’t twinkle.
- Head to the beach. Who doesn’t love the beach at any age? There, they can walk the beach and go shelling. Or dip in the water and go snorkling. Just avoid those jellyfish, except from a distance.
- Be an example. When you, as a parent, notice nature and marvel in it, it’s surprising how quickly even older children will follow along.
We have the benefit of living in a neighborhood with a greenbelt. One of the best outdoor activities the kids in the neighborhood ever did (without any parental encouragement) was gather every afternoon and build a fort together. They called it Fortsburg. And it was awesome.
It takes a little more creativity to get older children outside, but it can be done. So, go ahead, be out there.











