How Do You Get Your Children to Play Outside More?
Oct 14, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
One of the healthiest habits you can build for your child is to encourage more outdoor play. It encourages physical fitness and an appreciation of nature. Sadly, many parents don’t push this issue very much at all. They let their children play inside too much of the day, and give them too much time to watch television and play on the computer.
This isn’t just about children old enough to go play outside on their own. This is also about getting outside with children so young they need supervision every minute. It’s about getting out into nature even when you have an infant so young that you have to carry him or her the entire time.
One of the best books I’ve read on this topic is Last Child in the Woods
The younger you start, the more appealing outdoor play will be. Hot, cold, remember that there are appropriate clothes for just about any weather. If your kids say the weather is wrong and you want them to play outside, take a look and what they’re wearing and make any necessary changes before shooing them out.
Outdoors should be appealing. A swing set can get kids begging to go outside for as long as they fit on it. But even something as simple as a 2×4 board used as a balance beam will get many kids out and playing. Don’t forget basics such as a bicycle and roller skates
Kids shouldn’t always have to play outside alone. It’s good for you to join them, and increase their exposure to nature in more places than the local park or your backyard. It’s also good to get yourself out and active. Go camping or hiking as a family. You don’t have to make it a huge expedition. An hour’s hike, or a single night out camping is a good experience for the entire family. Take longer trips as everyone in the family learns to appreciate it more.
For simpler times, kick or throw a ball around in the back yard together. Go for rides or walks around your neighborhood. Make these outdoor family times a part of your family routine, not just something for special days.
Don’t forget the value of friends for getting the kids to play outside! Any neighborhood friends your kids have are a great incentive to getting them outside and playing. Get to know the parents and make outdoor play something they enjoy as a group.
You may have battles about being sent out to play. There will be times to give in and times to fight it out. Do your best to have your kids value their outdoor playtime so it will be looked forward to rather than complained about.
More Great Books About Getting Kids Outside
Sharing Nature with Children
I Love Dirt!: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Kids Discover the Wonders of Nature
Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children
Fun With Nature (Take-Along Guide)
Tags: exercise, friends, kids, outdoor play
How to Entertain Your Kids Without Electronics
Sep 7, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
Most kids these days love their electronic toys. It starts with the toys they get as babies and keeps going on. It’s a tough habit to break, as many of their friends will be enjoying electronic toys too.
It’s good to teach your kids that they don’t need electronic gadgets and toys to have fun. There’s a lot more out there for them to do.
Why Bother?
As this can be a frustrating thing to do, a big question may be why you should bother limiting your children’s use of electronics. Why not let them just go at it?
Much has to do with how children can become inactive due to their use of electronics, television, computers and video games in particular. Many kids spend several hours a day in front of one or another screen, rather than getting outside, playing and getting exercise and fresh air. It’s not healthy.
Board Games
While getting your kids to play outside is a good goal, there’s nothing wrong with playing a board game
Playing a game together as a family is a great way to spend time together. You can talk about whatever comes to mind, or just banter about the game. You can learn a lot about each other.
Send the Kids Outside
It’s best if you can get your kids to play outside every day. There’s a saying about how there’s no such thing as inappropriate weather, just inappropriate clothes. In other words, don’t worry about rain or snow. Dress the kids appropriately and let them have fun.
Do be careful about particularly hot days, of course, and use a safe sunscreen on your kids. Encourage them to wear hats outside as well to protect their skin. Have cold water ready for them to drink when they get thirsty.
You’ll have to be ready to deal with the mess of kids playing outside. Hot weather encourages the use of sprinklers and water toys, which can mean mud tracked in and water on the floor. So can rain and snow. Have towels ready to deal with the mess, and set limits about how much mess you can stand.
You can play games outside too. Teach your kids the classics, such as hide and go seek, Simon Says, Red Rover, tag and whatever else comes to mind. It’s good for you to get outside too.
Tags: avoiding electronics, Eco Friendly Parenting, kids, outdoor play
How Do You Talk to Your Kids About Climate Change Without Scaring Them?
Sep 3, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
Climate change is one of those topics your kids are going to hear about eventually. If you think about it from a child’s perspective, it’s a kind of scary thing to think about. They take things such as the possibility that polar bears will go extinct due to melting ice in the Arctic very seriously and even personally.
It’s hard to balance protecting your kids with growing informed citizens who will care about the environment. Kids care almost too much for their own good.
Keep It Age Appropriate
It’s not always easy keeping talks about the environment and climate change age appropriate. Kids just have to catch a news story or educational program to start asking questions you aren’t sure how to answer.
My #1 rule has always been to keep it honest but age appropriate.
Try to focus on the things you can do as a family to help the environment. Discuss using less, recycling, driving less and so forth. Talk about why you make the choices you do.
As kids get old enough, start looking for appropriate volunteer opportunities. If your child has a particular interest, try to have the opportunity match it.
You can also help kids to learn the difference between climate and weather. This is one of those things it seems many adults have trouble with, but it could be an advantage in discussions if your kids do understand that weather is short term and climate is long term.
Get Into Nature
Kids will appreciate nature more if they see it in person. Not just the backyard or the local playground, go hiking and camping. If there are campgrounds in your area, you shouldn’t need to go far.
Try making hiking and camping a part of family vacations, especially if you travel to an unfamiliar place. Talk about how things change from place to place.
If you happen to know how climate change is impacting an area you’re in, you can talk about the evidence for it. It’s not always definite enough to blame changes on climate change, but other times you can see that the climate of an area is not what it used to be.
Talk About Local Issues
Climate change is not all about polar bears dying and glaciers melting. It’s also about what’s happening in your own area.
Is water becoming an issue? How has climate change effected winters in your area?
Find out together what’s going on with your local climate. If you don’t know much about the local situation already, you may learn some really interesting things yourself.
Read a Book Together
There are a range of books available that can help you to discuss climate change basics with your kids, all the way up to more advanced discussions. A good book can explain climate change in ways you probably won’t think of on your own. Here are some titles to consider buying or looking for at your local library:
The Magic School Bus And The Climate Challenge
A Kids’ Guide to Climate Change & Global Warming: How to Take Action!
How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate: Scientists and Kids Explore Global Warming
Mission: Planet Earth: Our World and Its Climate–and How Humans Are Changing Them
Climate: Causes and Effects of Climate Change (Our Fragile Planet)
Tags: climate change, environmentalism, kids, talking to kids
What Should You Teach Your Children About Climate Change?
Aug 2, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
As a mother concerned about how the climate of our planet is changing, sometimes it’s hard to decide just what to tell my kids about it. There’s a lot to explain, and it changes as kids grow older. I don’t want to scare them, but I don’t want them casually wasting things either.
What do you tell children about climate change?
Younger Children
When children are really young, I don’t think explaining climate change as such is effective. What is effective is to teach them to not waste food or other items. They can start to learn about recycling.
Young children are usually great about repurposing things you might otherwise throw into the trash. So many things can be parts of various art projects. Sometimes it’s hard to balance keeping things for future projects with keeping clutter out of your home. Once kids get the idea, they’ll often try to keep just about everything you’ll let them.
Kids in Elementary School
Elementary school is a good time to start getting a bit more into the details of why you want your children to recycle and not waste. You can discuss what littering and pollution in general do to the environment, and how your lifestyle can help.
Be aware of what’s being taught at this stage at your child’s school. It may or may not agree with what you want your children to learn about climate change.
I find it important for my children to understand that humans are most likely a factor in global climate change. I don’t mind explaining that some people disagree, because that’s something they’re going to hear at some point. Better they get used to hearing about why we believe as we do than to be confronted with a different perspective they don’t know how to handle.
You should also see what your local schools are doing to reduce waste at their locations. Do they have recycling bins? Do they have a gardening program for the kids? Are they offering information to parents online or by email rather than printing every notice out?
Middle School on Up
The older kids get, the more you can teach them about climate change, individual action and volunteering to make more of a difference.
This is a good time to really get into why you make the shopping choices you do. If your kids are really interested you may have covered this topic at a younger age, but as they get older start talking to them about why you shop where you do. Tell them what’s good about going to thrift stores, especially when they start resisting. Come up with a plan to balance their needs for a particular look with environmental considerations.
Kids in this age group are eligible for many kinds of volunteer opportunities. They don’t have to go for environmental causes in particular; it’s just good to get them used to the idea that helping others is something they should do.
If you raise your children to consider the environment, it will come more naturally to them. They may rebel against it at times, but if you pay attention to their concerns and needs you can find the balance that will help them appreciate all they can contribute to making the world a better place.
Tags: climate change, kids, parenting, teaching children
Encourage Your Kids to Be Active
Jul 9, 2010 Eco Friendly Parenting
From a young age, most kids are very active. They love to run around the house and play. It’s a lot for many of us to keep up with, especially if we haven’t been particularly active ourselves.
But as they get older, TV and video games slow many down. Sitting around takes the place of active play. As a parent you know you should encourage more activity, but it’s not always easy to decide what to have your kids do.
Have Them Take the Lead
Signing your child up for an activity is an easy way to encourage activity, but it can also be frustrating for kids. Many parents choose activities for their kids based on what they would want to do, not the child’s interests. This can lead to frustration.
Find out what your child would like to try. Don’t limit options to just team sports; there are a lot of alternatives out there. My own children love karate. It’s a good workout, and they progress at their own rates. There’s no guilt for not being the best player on the team.
Don’t stress if they find they don’t like a particular sport or activity. Just agree to try something different next time. Swimming, karate and dancing are all good activities, and don’t have to be done on a competitive level.
Remember That They’re Children
A big mistake many parents make in signing their kids up for activities is forgetting that they’re children. Parents can expect their child to put in unreal amounts of practice in the hopes that they will excel. Some parents have dreams of their kids going into a professional career in whatever sport they’re playing as an activity.
It doesn’t matter what your dreams are for your child, or even if he or she agrees that they want to do their sport professionally. As a parent, it is your job to make sure that they don’t do more than is good for their bodies. That means no over training. That means leaving time for other things in their lives such as playing with friends and relaxing.
Overdoing is a huge mistake. Children can permanently injure their bodies trying too hard in their sports. Their bodies are still growing and really are not ready for intense training.
Don’t be the screaming parent watching your kids either. You’ve probably heard the reports of parents getting into fights at their children’s games. Your job is to encourage your child. You don’t need to do that by yelling at them, their teammates or their competition. You’ll do better to teach good sportsmanship.
Get Involved
There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be getting active yourself. It’s better for your health to be active, and you’ll probably have fun.
This is a wonderful, non-materiel gift you can give your children. Participating in an activity creates great memories, which will be remembered for many years. It also helps to create healthy habits.
How involved you get depends on the time you have available. You don’t want to overdo it – kids need to learn how to do things on their own too – but you should be there to help them practice sometimes and as needed to get them to their activity. It also might help you to remember how much fun being physically active can be.
Tags: activities, being active, children, kids, sports
