Author: Georgia Kids Outdoors

Not all kids’ experiences outdoors need to be great — although by “great,” although of course I’m meaning “great-big-wide-open,” not “great-awesome.” Sometimes they need their outdoor space to be very, very small, just like them.

I first got thinking about this as I was researching ideas for the new “Farm to School” garden I’m helping develop for my son’s elementary school. This will mostly be a utilitarian food-growing and lesson-teaching area, but I still wanted to throw in a little whimsy.

I had seen the idea of a living tunnel in various places, including the excellent book, How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Pringle. It is built over a trellis formed of various materials and shapes, but a common version is a hoop of wire covered with pole beans, long and high enough that kids can walk underneath. Not only is it an easy way to harvest the veggies (or just encourage grazing as kids pass through), it creates a magical, filtered light beneath and a special entryway that makes heading out to the garden an event.

As I scoured Pinterest for building materials and creative inspiration, I found a number of other living structures, some only big enough to hold a child or two (yes, I was nice enough to create a board just for you to see some of my favorites). A cluster of sunflowers or a bamboo teepee supporting pole beans were two common and easy-to-grow options, although some involved lovely willow branch pods covered in green. You don’t even have to spend weekends building something elaborate — at my son’s birthday party, kids had a blast collecting fallen wood to build their own survivalist hut.

And that’s when I really started thinking about the role of quiet reflection and stillness in a child’s outdoor life. Yes, we are concerned about our kids being couch potatoes inside. But when they are outside, sometimes we need to let them take a break from active adventures and group outings, and just experience nature on their own, quietly, as it comes.

Whether that’s listening to the shift in the sound of the wind through the leaves as a rain storm approaches, or breathing in the scent of soil as they scuff it with their feet, or just watching which little critters meander in to share their shady spot, these are profound connections that will truly connect children to the outdoors and draw them back. All they need is a little space.

In an effort to figure out how to add “starting a blog” to my list of things to do in a day, I’ve been reading Laura Vanderkam’s book, I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time.

I’m not sure I buy in to all of her advice (“Don’t like working 60 hour work weeks? Maybe you should get a more interesting job!” Or: “Commuting doesn’t count as work time because you could potentially stop to buy milk on the way home, and that’s shopping!”), but before I completely gave up on it, I did find one piece of advice I liked.

In the section called “Be There,” she lists the ten secrets of happier parenting. There are a number of them that jive with the mission of this blog, like “Be active together” and “Plan adventures.” But the one has potential to be used almost every day: “Think through your weekday evenings.”

For many of us, the typical weekday evening might be something we try to avoid thinking about: the rush to get dinner on the table, finishing up homework, getting to the ball field on time.

But Vanderkam’s suggestion is to spend just a little time creating an intention for your evening – with input from your other family members. By planning ahead, and visualizing what could be done with your evening time before you’re exhausted and hungry, you can see where pockets of time might exist, and mentally prepare yourself for squeezing in a little activity.

Maybe there’s time for everyone to take a walk before dinner?

Is there time to check out the veggie garden and see what can be added to the salad? How about bringing a jump rope or ball instead of the tablet to a sibling’s sports practice? Has it been a while since you had a family dance party?

Even if what you really need to do is chores, make a plan to make it fun: Crank up the music and have a race to pick up clutter. Or celebrate the end of laundry sorting with a sock snowball fight.

Without a plan, chances are everyone goes from the table to the couch – or their separate rooms. So see if you can spend just a few minutes early in the day (or even on Sunday night) thinking about what you want your evenings to really be like.

I’ve just been asked by my son’s elementary school to help them create a new section for their school garden. We already have a fantastic courtyard garden with lots of ornamentals and pollinator plants (and even an apple tree!), but this section would be a hands-on teaching garden that gives the students an opportunity to grow their own food. So this will be just part one of several posts documenting that project.

Today I’m going over to measure the area and draw up a plan. They want to have a planting bed for each grade, plus one for the special needs program, and hopefully one more just in case we think of something else we want to do.

I’m excited about this, because:

1. We have great support from the administration (we are even talking her in to letting us have a chicken coop!). This is so important when trying to start up a school-based gardening program.
2. The kids will be doing the work. I have warned all involved, I am happy to facilitate, but don’t need another garden to weed! I am anti-“mommy projects” when it comes to volunteer work.
3. The teachers will be working the garden into their curriculum. There are so many great lessons that can be taught in a garden, from math, to science, and even literature. I will be helping them by finding lesson plans that support Georgia standards and creating “lessons in a bookbag” that make it easy for teachers to grab and go. With all that teachers have to do, I know it’s important to make this easy for them to add in.

I’ll be adding to this list, but here are just a few of the resources I’ll be using to find lesson plans, and, more importantly at this stage, find grants:

• Environmental Education in Georgia
• Georgia Organics
• Captain Planet Foundation