Outdoor Free Play

Pilica River, Poland

We, as the parents, owe our offspring more outdoor time then we offer, not a highly structured, adult coached activity such as baseball, soccer, athletics, but a simple nature play in a ditch, backyard, garden, creek, grassland, or woodlot, where they can initiate exploration of bugs on a sidewalk, worms in dirt, soil under their nails, simply the Mother Nature.

Beetle, Poland

Nowadays childhood has radically changed. An average American kid spends 27% of his daytime in front of TV, computer or other electronic devices and just 1% of structured, outdoor time. “Unstructured”, make-it-up-as-you-go outdoor free play ranges only about 30 minutes per week, which is hardly 4 minutes per day. That’s a dramatic change from past generations when one of the most common parental instructions was, “Go outside to play until I call you! Just remember to stay away from a trouble.”

Treasure, Poland

What I recall from my childhood was “mucking around” with neighbors and friends, digging holes, collecting sticks and stones, playing in a self-made tree house, exploring drains, building snow fords, hiding from my sister in a secret spot in a garden or an attic, and watching only 10 minute TV cartoon at 6:45 pm. And that memory and experience I would like to pass onto my daughter by creating some possibilities for a frequent free outdoor play.

Grandma’s Garden, Poland

Whenever I ask Barbara about her favorite place to play, she always gives the same answer: “The grandma’s garden (Sulejow, Pland), when we play with Mela (the cousin)”. Even our extensive traveling when we visit exotic places of different origin, meet interesting people, try diverse food or discover fascinating objects her best memories always go back to Poland. And from what I assume it is not because Sulejow (Poland) is the most striking place, but because it reminds her about freedom, exploration and interaction with the familiar nature and best friends.

Baking Potatoes, Poland

No one intentionally removed “nature play” from our children, but several changes have happened over the past 30 years.

We’ve become more urbanized and the access to green play spaces is a lot more distant than it was in the past.
Children’s free time has been reduced due to longer school days and many more after-school activities.
Parental worries have been puffed up by “24/7” media coverage of all dangers to children, whether they are sunburns, bee stings, or crime.
And then television, music devices, computers, and video games have all been developed over the past 30 years.

Tinder Fungus, Poland

We have involuntarily removed a vitality that has been at the center of children’s physical, social, emotional, creative, and intellectual development throughout the history of humankind.

Nowadays one in five four-year-olds in the U.S. is clinically obese.

Blueberries, Poland

For generations, nature play has been a major part of childhood. But only recently its power has been revalued again. The study proves that:

Regular practices of an active play during our childhood are one of the best predictors of vigorous adulthoods - a perfect prescription for fighting the obesity epidemic.
School children who use playgrounds with trees, fields, shrubs, and vegetated edges show more creative play, better concentration, and more inter-gender play than peers with equipment focused playgrounds.
Outdoor play in green settings reduces the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children.
Apparently early exposure to plants, animals, and soil helps children’s immune systems to develop properly, making them less vulnerable to allergenic conditions like asthma or seasonal allergies.
Frequent, unstructured childhood play in natural settings has been found to be the most common influence on the development of life - long conservation values.

Pilica River, Poland

The first step to restore the free nature play is to understand its meaning, locate the essential attributes and put them into the action.

1. First thing is to find the right place.

Size of the place does not mutter, what matters is a freedom! Therefore a good nature play is a land that is nether too protected or wild in children’s standard. This might be a quiet corner in a local park, a not in use city lot, a small neighborhood creek, or just the backyard.

A chosen place must have the elements of nature to play and discover, such as: rocks, dirt, trees, bugs, flowers, mud, and water. Equally important is freedom to dig, collect, climb, build, and hide there.

2. Second thing is to find the right play. It’s all about playing with nature, not just in nature!

Outdoor, “child-centered” play is the goal: play that children themselves initiate, guide, change, or abandon. The very best nature play comes from the child, not from the adult!

Ideally, there are no formal objectives and few rules for nature play. It is vital, though, that the play actively engages kids with nature and its elements; it’s not just any play that happens outdoors.

Real nature play is catching tiny critters, collecting leaves and rocks, hiding in tall grass, digging for buried treasure, splashing in the creek, hiding amidst the shrubs, and climbing a tree as high as you dare.

3. Third thing is to re-play.

In the past we played outdoors nearly every day, again and again, in good weather or bad. This level of frequency may be the hardest aspect of nature play to restore. If kids have to be driven to the nature place, then it’s not likely to happen often enough to fully impact their growth, development, and love of nature. Therefore, we need to bring nature play closer, maybe to the families’ yards, local green spaces, and school playgrounds, places they can reach on foot or by bicycle, day after day, to play and re-play.

Waiting, Poland

The right kinds of place, play, and re-play are crucial for the nature play, but the outdoor fun doesn’t have to perfectly match all three in order to be worthwhile! We shouldn’t worry about perfection, but open the door and encourage our kid to start exploration!