If you haven’t noticed, unstructured play is pretty en vogue these days.  Articles touting its importance, experts saying kids need more, that it’s becoming a lost art form, that without it your child may become a criminal—articles leaving you awake at night wondering a) what the heck unstructured play is and b) if you’re a terrible person because you haven’t scheduled it in to tomorrow’s agenda.  Ugh.

Never fear.  Unstructured play is just a new phrase for something very old.  Something that animals do, and that kids naturally tend towards in every activity.  For example, remember when they were two, and could be entertained with an empty Kleenex box and a gum wrapper?  When they used shoes as telephones?  Remember the last time you set them down to chutes and ladders and came back to find them using the board, upside down, as a slide and the pieces as a marching band?  That, my friends, is unstructured play—activities that are steeped in imagination and creation; activities that downplay agendas and end-goals.  Unstructured play is when no one is looking towards the finish line.  It is the zen-moment of free time.  And what’s more, all it requires are the natural gift every child has:  an imagination.

Why is unstructured play so great? Because it promotes exploration, creativity and independent thinking.  What’s more, it gives you, the over-burdened parent, a little break.  Leave them be and let them figure out what to do with a half an hour.

Easy. Right? Ummm… no.  At least not for me and my brood.  There are so many other factors that go in to getting a child to conjure up an interesting and attention-capturing activity all by themselves.  Assuming that I’m not the only one with issues in this realm, I hereby dedicate the rest of this post to how to achieve those unstructured moments.

How do you de-structure your kids playtime?  You fight the urge to entertain.  You turn off the t.v., the playstation, the wii, and the ipod.  You leave them with materials and let them create their own fun.  They’ll be bored to start with, but out of desperation, they’ll figure it out–this is especially true if you’ve got several children of the right age–they’ll feed off each other.

Here are, in my experience, the most common obstacles for children left to their own devices, and the methods that I have dreamed up for dealing with them.  I very much look forward to hearing from readers who have also tried to incorporate undirected playtime into their child’s daily routine! (more…)

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED! Winner will be announced Friday, September 15.**

If your fairly new to the site you may have missed a post I did way back in January called “The Power of the Balance Bike“. It’s such a fine product, I’m pleased and honored to be giving away a strider for our first ever Outsidemom giveaway!

I would love to take all the credit for this, but the giveaway is sponsored by Outdoor Daily Deals, it’s entirely their fault you have a chance to win this bike. They’re a facebook page that posts one outdoor item every day that you can purchase for 25-50% off. Emphasis on the ONE ITEM a day. They don’t drive you crazy by spamming your facebook feed with “deals”. They’ve been awesome to work with, and I highly recommend the “like“.

How do you enter my Outsidemom giveaway? All you have to do is leave a comment on the blog. Tell me how old you were when you learned to ride a bike, who taught you,  and whether the experience involved a banana seat.

And, of course, we would love it if you shared this opportunity with friends, but we completely understand if you don’t because it lowers your chances. You can always make it up to us by sharing something with them later (wink wink).

The winner will be announced Friday September 16th here on this very blog. Other rules below, check ‘em out before entering. Good luck! (more…)

It’s summer time.  And the bees… they’re everywhere!  You’ve heard them buzzing on a lazy day, your kids have been stung, or someone has remarked on the bees busy at flowers.  They’re everywhere… and yet so misunderstood, poor things.

Here are ten interesting facts about the wonderful creatures known as bees.

How is it that I know these things about bees?  Because I’m a certified geek, and when I’m not cooking or taking pictures, I’m thinking about bees.  And okay, so I’m studying bees for my PhD.  But whatever.

Spout these little factoids off to your kids and wow them with your worldly knowledge.  Or just take a moment to marvel out how cool these little beasties are.

1. There are between 20,000 and 30,000 species in the world. In North America there are between 3,000 and 4,000.  New species are found every year.  Really.  Every year!  It’s like Lewis and Clark or Dr. Livingstone out there in the bee-world.  ”Where are most bees found,” you’re wondering?  I’ll tell you:  the deserts.  Unlike butterflies, beetles, monkeys, hummingbirds, frogs, sloths, and many, many other creatures, bees love dry heat, and are most diverse in the hot and dry places of the world. (more…)

I love TED talks.  They are varied, fascinating, and stimulating.  They make me think of things that it never occurred to me to think about. Here is one that I watched not too long ago. It has been viewed over 5 million times, and has been extremely well-received.

At first I was inspired: the idea that we can be ‘educated out of our creative capacities’ hit a chord with me, the girl who has spent the last 29 years being educated and is currently feeling rather water-cracker bland.

Then it hit me what he seemed to be implying and I felt slightly indignant. (more…)

I just read this fascinating article in Psychology Today that talked about what skills the current generation will need in order to be successful by the time they’re old enough to hold down a job.  The author points out that the model for our current education system was invented over a hundred years ago—when telephones were just being invented, refrigerators were blocks of ice, and television was pure science fiction.  In other words, during a time that today’s children absolutely cannot comprehend.  More importantly, the goals of education differed significantly a hundred years ago.  Today (as the author says):

“The best jobs will go to applicants who have the skillsets to analyze information as it becomes available, the flexibility to adapt when what were believed to be facts are revised, and to collaborate with other experts on a global playing field requiring tolerance, willingness to consider alternative perspectives, and articulately communicate one’s ideas successfully.”

How do we prepare our children for this future?  The author suggests encouraging activities that teach “predicting, planning, revising, and accountability”.

Here’s an idea: let your child plan the next hike. (more…)

Notice anything new about the website… Like maybe on the sidebar? Maybe a graphic that looks like this one to the left?

I’m sure a lot of you are already familiar with Nature Rocks, but for those who aren’t, allow me to explain. — It’s a campaign that strives to get children and families back into the outdoors. Their belief is that nature produces the benefits of happier, healthier and smarter children and families.

I agree.

Which is why I found it fitting to volunteer as a Nature Rocks Ambassador. It gives me a chance to be involved in a national program that essentially believes what I believe.

I’m keeping their ‘button’ on my site so that readers can have easy access to their Website, which I would say has three main functions: (more…)

Last week, after frantically finishing up a bunch of contract work (yes, I have a day job), getting stuff together for pre-school and finishing a blog post, I stood up, looked around my office (which had pretty much turned into a toy room) and realized something… When I started this blog I promised myself that it would never cut into my family time, never cause me to shirk my other duties and never, heaven forbid, cut into our outside time. I realized my life was actually getting to that point.

I needed help. And I found it.

Allow me to introduce a new member to the OutsideMom team: Olivia.

I toyed around with a few titles for her, ‘idea-bouncer,’ ‘schedule-maker,’ ‘sanity-checker,’ ‘coolest-girl-ever,’ but in the end I settled on ‘Contributor.’ Olivia will be contributing posts a few times a month.

I wanted to introduce you to Olivia before her first post tomorrow, so asked I her to send me some bullet points to get me going. Her first round of bullet points I found hilarious, and I’m sure were not meant to make it into the final version of the bio, but guess what? It did. Here are her bullet points, and here is me decoding them for you. (more…)

A few weeks ago The Heritage Council published the results of a survey that examines the differences in playing outdoors between generations. Parents were asked where they played when they were children and where their children (ages 7-11) now play. Although playing at home, in a friend’s home indoors, the garden and the school playground are still the most popular locations for playing across the generations, it’s no surprise that there were decreases in the number of kids who played in fields, wild spaces and the woods.

I was however a little surprised at first when “supervision” emerged as the number one barrier to children playing and experiencing the outdoors. This is something I’ve thought about quite a bit in relation to how I was raised compared to how I’m raising my own kids. I feel like I ran wild (to which I will be forever grateful to my Mother), and although I want my kids to have the same experiences I did, I’m just not sure I’ll be comfortable with the same level of supervision my Mom was.

To make my point let me dissect the first paragraph in my About Me page.

• I grew up in Southern Utah.
  Currently my kids are growing up in a gated community, in the biggest little city in the world, Reno Nevada.
  
• I spent my childhood outside; skin as brown as the dirt, hair bleached blond in the sun.
  I have naturally fair skin, so this was obviously back in the days before sunscreen. With all the hype over sun exposure I’m only slightly less paranoid than the next Mom about maintaining sunscreen applications, keeping hats on, and providing protective clothing. (more…)

GreenTeacher hosts a whole series of free webinars. I thought this one looked interesting:

Webinar topic:  ”Plugged In; But Tuned Out: The Need to Reconnect with Nature”
Wednesday March 30, 2011, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Presenter:  Herb Broda

Description: In this age of alluring techno-gadgetry we need to be very cautious about maintaining a balance between indoor and outdoor activity. At a time whenchildren’s natural curiosity about the outdoors is eclipsed by the demands ofbusy schedules and the ever-present glow of video screens, schools and outdoor centers may be the only places where kids are encouraged tointeract with nature. Kids need to go outside for both learning and play—indeed there is a need for old-fashioned unstructured play in nature – the kind of invented play that “older” folks fondly recall.

I contacted the instructor to make sure it was going to be applicable for parents as much as formal educators, I received this response: I can say without hesitation that parents will find his presentation just as useful as will teachers and other youth educators. To sign up go here, or check out other webinars they’re offering this spring.