Living Life in Nature

Written By: Tiffany Hill

As I look back, I can say I had the best childhood memories of playing and enjoying the outdoors.  For me growing up, there was never a hesitation or second thought about being outdoors. I absolutely loved it and today probably would consider it my second home. I can remember during the summer practically spending all day outdoors. We climbed trees, played in muddy puddles, played tag, hide and go seek, picked Japanese plums, rode our bikes, and the list is endless.

Believe me when I say there was no such thing as boredom. We always found something to do and it was clearly good wholesome fun! We hated to leave our friends when that street light came on…oops I’m telling my age. Yes, I had to be in the house by the time the street light came on.

Day after day, we would pick back up from where we left off the previous day. Having fun and enjoying the outdoors. No cares, no worries, but I guess I really didn’t even know what that was at the time. My point is, we were care free, free to be wild, free to explore, and free to be one with nature. I can say now, what a beautiful and invigorating feeling that was. 

Times Have Changed

Times have definitely changed and technology has become a strong front runner over children spending time and playing outdoors. Some children are now caught up into video games, YouTube, cell phones, etc. The national panic about kids spending too much time indoors has become so extreme, that the crisis is what we may consider as “Nature Deficit Disorder.” 

The average American child is said to spend 4 to 7 minutes a day in unstructured play outdoors, and over 7 hours a day in front of a screen.  Wow…these statistics are definitely startling. My husband and I vowed from the time our son was born, we would introduce him to outdoor life, and how to develop life skills for sustainability and self-sufficiency. This includes, living off of the land, hunting what we eat, and the list goes on.

Benefits

One may ask, what benefits are there to allowing children to be outdoors and explore nature? For one, nature is good for a child’s development because it helps to build confidence which is needed through all facets of life. 

The way that children play in nature has a lot less structure than most types of indoor play. There are numerous ways to interact with outdoor environments, from the back yard to the park to the local hiking trail or lake. Allowing children to choose how he or she treats nature means they have the power to control their own actions.

Promotes Creativity 

Next, nature promotes creativity and imagination within a child. With nature being an unstructured environment, it allows children to interact meaningfully with their surroundings.

They can think freely, create their own activities, and approach the world in inventive ways. Our family lives in the city, but we are definitely fortunate to have my husband’s parent’s home where we can retreat, hunt, and fish and expose our son to an outdoor lifestyle and way of life. 

If you live in the city and don’t have access to readily being outdoors, you may have to put a little more effort in finding activities to be able to discover nature as a family unit. City life is definitely wonderful with its public parks, playgrounds, and public events, but this day in time, it is definitely important and a huge urgency to discover and expose our children to nature.  

Family Activities 

Family activities such as skiing, fishing, hiking, and hunting, just to name a few, are all ideal opportunities to introduce our children to what we call nature and the circle of life. As parents, we can definitely use this time to explain how nature works. For example, discussing something as simple as the growth cycle of a plant. Explaining that a flower or a plant needs light and water to grow.  

My son gets super excited and ready to run the woods. He’s always game for a new adventure! As I am a week away from rifle hunting season, this season will especially be memorable and one for the books.

I am able to share my love for hunting and enthusiasm for the outdoors with his first official hunt. We have taken him out with us since age 2 during pre-season to check trail cameras, put out corn, and prep for the season. He is at an age now where he can remember and really grasp the concept. He has definitely grown up outdoors and it has been so amazing to watch his growth.  

Life lessons

A child can learn everything they need to know about success in life through participating in activities that expose them to the outdoors. Discipline, patience, endurance, and learning to live with disappointment and failure. Exposure to the outdoors plan and simple helps develop life skills that will assist in producing well rounded children.

I cannot stress enough how vital it is for our children to be introduced to the outdoors and learn about survival and everyday life skills. “Children still need a childhood with dirt, mud, puddles, trees, sticks, and tadpoles.” Whether they choose when they get of age to use what they have learned or not, at least they know what to do in the event that they have to fall back on these skills.  In the direction the world is headed now, these skills will definitely come into play in the near future.