Fifteen Minutes Outside: 365 Ways to Get Out of the House and Connect with Your Kids by
Rebecca P. Cohen
Suppose your New Year's Resolution was to spend just 15 minutes outside with your kids every day through the year? Author Rebecca Cohen did just that -- and it had such great impact on her and her family that she wants to help as many families as she can start their own outdoor experiences. She includes an idea for every day of the year! Thumbing through her plethora of suggestions may strain at your spirit of spontaneity, your preference perhaps being for something less contrived.
She has a website:
www.rebeccaplants.com and a television series: Get Out of the House.
I too am an enthusiast of outdoor time with family (even though our family's "sports" are theater and dance so it's obvious we're not "sporty"). What I'd like to do is use her suggestions as memory prompts for me to record some of the things we've done over the years.
For Jan. 19 she suggests: "
Search for Animal Tracks". What fun it is for a child to discover tracks in the snow! For our family it wasn't "let's do this today" but more "hey! look at these" (on whatever particular day they appeared). A trip to the library for some books to read up on this might be in order. Brainstorm with your child other places to look for information about the animals who left their calling cards. Your child might acquire a life-long fascination for their wildlife guests.
For Feb. 7 she suggests: "
Play the Game "What's Beautiful Today?". What a good idea any day of the year! I am reminded of a favorite book that we discovered when our children were very young:
David's Little Indian by
Margaret Wise Brown
Lucky you if you own a copy of this little hand-sized book, as I do. Its magic lies in its simplicity. David is shown how to notice his surroundings by his little imaginary friend. They even go so far as to name each day for what was noticeable about it.
My life is forever enriched with the nudge this book gave me and my children to notice and name the many gifts laid at our feet each and every day.
Not among Cohen's suggestions is playing a
game of croquet in the snow -- an event our local library recently hosted as a family activity inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic story "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". What a 'novel' idea!
On a more practical level, we enjoyed an unseasonably warm day for winter and we jumped at the chance to
clean up after our dog in the postage-stamp-sized front yard of our rented town house. This is not what one envisions when one contemplates "being outside" but it did provide plenty of exercise and the feeling of satisfaction one gets for a job done.
Why is it that necessity is often the author of better choices? This week one of our vehicles began over-heating, thus requiring us to juggle the remaining vehicle between two work schedules. As a result, I got to
walk home one day this week (and will again today). It's a couple of miles across a small college town and I found if I walk very fast it only takes about a half hour. The fresh air and natural exercise felt so good!
Many's the time that our time outdoors is spent
shoveling around our van and our sidewalk and steps. I generally love shoveling snow. One of my pet peeves is people who don't groom their walks from snow build up. My teenage daughter walks her dog every day, which is how she generally gets her "daily dose" of outdoors time.
Cohen suggests "
Visit a Garden". We are lucky to have a very nice college campus garden to visit, replete with many photo-op's. As far north as we are it is best to reserve this visit for better weather. However, the campus also sports some hills and we ought to
give sledding a go. A neighbor has a pond made from an old buffalo wallow. Recently my teenage daughter rented some ice-skates with some friends so they could
skate on this little pond.
Cohen suggests "
Make an Adventure Book". (Inspired by the movie "UP", of course!) How long has it been since you
rolled down a hill? Or got out some
sidewalk chalk and created a masterpiece that will wash away in the rain? Then get your hands on a copy of Mary Poppins and start reading. Or brainstorm movies that showcase sidewalk art. Have some fun! We love
comparing shadows on late afternoon walks. They are so funny, so Salvador Dali - like. So, hey, a walk with your shadow can segue into learning about an artisit!
Anytime is a good time to collect an armful of
gardening books from the library. Go on-line and order some
seed catalogs. While you're at it grab books on
landscaping and
play features. Make a plan! Price things. Decide on ONE NEW THING to do with your yard. Learn about Monet and his garden. Learn about Van Gogh and sunflowers.
How long has it been since you've
flown a kite? Tried to
spin a hula-hoop?
Watched a sunrise or a sunset on purpose?
Sat on the front step with a favorite snack?
Someone in our little town plants corn in a little strip of ground that would ordinarily not be used for anything. It's there for the picking, which we like to do walking home from the library. There's just nothing like
fresh corn, cooked within an hour of picking. Another household along our route home puts squash in a box under a tree at the end of the yard for people to help themselves to. I like to think of these as sharing pennies from heaven.
Get creative and make a
leaf scrapbook or a
three-dimensional something from squash. Get a contest going for "ugliest", "biggest", "smallest", "funniest", etc.
Is there anything that is unique to your area to celebrate? I grew up near Pacific Grove, CA where there is an annual Monarch Butterfly event.
Our best adventures have come by recommendation from other families. An easy walk to a grotto. A biking, walking path up a canyon. A scenic drive.
There are places we've gone on purpose to see -- the Muir Woods in California, the Timpanogas Cave in Utah, the Pacific Ocean, Zion's National Park, the Grand Canyon (north rim), the Four Corners of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The Monterey Bay Aquarium.
What fun we had when our youngest child believed in fairies and collected materials for them to build their houses with. She would leave the supplies on the front step and during the night little houses would be made under our trees by unseen hands.
Another daughter became an enthusiast of the local Farmer's Market after having interned on a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). She absolutely loved her time at the Bledsoe's "Quail Hollow Farm" in Overton, NV. http://quailhollowfarmcsa.com/
One thing that's nice to do outdoors is focus on sounds.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but a huge part of the magic of being outdoors is when there is WORK involved. Raking leaves, pulling weeds, planting. I don't know how to describe what happens when you focus on a repetitive task and have a conversation with someone or listen to an audio book as you work. Not to mention the good feeling of completing a task and seeing the results.
A favorite summer art project we've done every year is finding smooth rocks to paint. Cohen suggests doing what is shown at GoExploreNature.blogspot.com. She also suggests harvesting your own seeds and storing them for planting season. We generally find our seeds have gone moldy when we try this, so there's an art and a science to it for sure.
Make a calendar, notebook, scrapbook, or journal of your outdoor memories. Bring some of your outdoors indoors to embellish your surroundings. Take "mind pictures". Sometimes a camera just doesn't do justice to what you see. Try describing it to yourself. Try branding the image onto your memory. Notice the "wonderland" about you.
