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11/3/2015
Showing kids the wild side of life San Antonio ExpressNews
Lifestyle
Showing kids the wild side of life By Deborah Martin | November 2, 2015 | Updated: November 2, 2015 11:03pm 0
Photo: Photos By Bob Owen /San Antonio ExpressNews
IMAGE 1 OF 6 With rosemary and other herb plants nearby, Luna Koslan (right) and other students dig with shovels at PreK for SA North Education Center where they get to spend outside time enjoying a variety of activity ... more
Every afternoon around 4, Sarah Rice and her toddler Finley have “outdoor happy hour.”
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They might noodle around a bit in the backyard, playing in the kiddie pool or collecting pecans. Or they might hang out in the front yard, chatting with passersby and taking note of any planes that pass overhead. It’s an important part of the day for both of them. Rice enjoys sharing her love of nature, which was sparked by spending much of her childhood in Bulverde playing outdoors, with her son. “A connection to nature is key to my sense of wellbeing,” she said. “So I think it makes a huge difference for me and my son in terms of our level of sanity. We need that time outdoors.” Making outdoor time a priority is one way that parents can offset the nature deficit, a term coined by author Richard Louv in his 2005 bestseller “Last Child in the Woods.” The phrase describes the disconnect between children growing up in the hightech age and the natural world. He cited studies indicating that the lack of time spent engaging with nature has helped feed the rise in obesity, depression and attention disorders in contemporary youngsters. The book helped spark a grassroots movement aimed at getting children outside. One of the hubs for that effort in the Lone Star State is Texas Children in Nature, a network that works to raise awareness of the importance of engaging with the outdoors. “A lot of people don’t know that children are spending between seven
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and 11 hours per day indoors with media and only minutes per day playing outdoors,” said Jennifer Bristol, coordinator for the statewide
Tips to getting outdoors
network. “It’s really alarming. But the good news is it’s really solvable.”
Jennifer Bristol, coordinator for Texas Children in Nature, had a few tips for parents looking for ways to make the outdoors a regular part of their lives. Take the tech along. Rather than fighting with children who might be resistant to leaving their
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A lot is being done to that end, on the web, in parks and in schools. Texas Children in Nature, for example, maintains regional Nature Rocks websites, treasure troves of information about green spaces and nature programs. The sites — which include pages for San Antonio, Dallas/Fort Worth and the Panhandle — are being revamped to make them more mobilefriendly. Another resource local parents can tap into is the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department. In addition to maintaining the city’s parks, the department presents all kinds of programming. One of the most popular offerings is Starting Out Wild, which is aimed at ages 1 to 3. It includes hikes geared to the attention span and endurance levels of little ones. The classes tend to fill up almost as soon as registration opens up, said Nicole McCleod, an education coordinator with the Parks and Recreation Department. “I don’t have enough classes for the demand,” McLeod said, noting that the November classes filled up within an hour. “My goal is to get more
phones or tablets behind, incorporate the devices into the adventure. Let them use them to document what they see by taking photos or shooting video. And use apps or the Internet to answer any questions that might come up. Make the time. Schedule regular outings. It can be as simple as a nightly walk after dinner. Take a class. One of the biggest barriers to getting outside, she said, is fear of the unknown. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Texas Outdoor Family Program offers camping courses in the state parks. Visit http://tpwd.texas.gov/stateparks, then click on programs and then texasoutdoorfamily to register. Don’t make it more complicated than it is. “It doesn’t have to be a big camping trip or a twoweek vacation driving to Yellowstone,” Bristol said. “It can be very local.” Coming soon Alamo City residents will have allnew spots for safe outdoor encounters in 2017. The San Antonio Botanical Garden is adding a 2.5acre Family Adventure Garden, where youngsters will be able to use natural materials to build things, such as forts, or just romp around. The Witte Museum is expanding, which includes a renovation of Texas Wild, a popular attraction with critters and dioramas. “The goal is to empower families and children to understand nature so that when they’re out and about, they know the sounds of the bird, the cricket and the frog,” said Marise McDermott, president and CEO of the Witte. The dioramas provide “a way to get close to a black bear or to a cougar ... so you can really understand what they are, what they look like.” Deborah Martin
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volunteers involved.” Leslie BalidoMcClellan, assistant director of the PreK for SA North Education Center, makes it a point to talk up the parks to her students’ parents. That offcampus time augments the outdoor play programmed into every school day. Teachers at the North Side school have five outdoor areas where they can spend that time. At one end, children might ride bikes, tend to small garden patches or play in tented sandboxes; at the other, they might make mud pies, don butterfly wings or capes and race around or read in a hammock. There’s also an outdoor classroom on a covered patio. Teachers can sign up to spend an entire day out there, something that’s been a big hit for the kiddoes, said Sandy Weser, the school’s director. “For days, they talk about the fact that they ate outside, that they napped outside, that they did all their learning outside,” said Weser. “I have even heard comments where children said, ‘Oh, it’s so peaceful out here.’ There’s a sense of calmness. It’s a different atmosphere. And I think it’s so important for children to have those experiences.” Heather Eichling, who writes about familyfriendly events for the Alamo City Moms Blog, praised the wealth of outdoor programs the city offers for families. But, she noted, exposing children to nature can be as simple as opening the front door and stepping through it. She and her 2yearold son Luca are big fans of Brackenridge Park, where they enjoy feeding bread to the ducks and walking around. They also spend a fair amount of time in the backyard. “If you have access to dirt, grass and bugs,’ she said, “that’s nature.” dlmartin@expressnews.net Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN http://www.expressnews.com/lifestyle/article/Showingchildrenthewildsideoflife6604823.php
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