POST #3
Why is it important for our children to have a connection with the natural world in order to increase the possibility of their thriving and growing to be productive and happy adults?
What do we get, what do we learn, as children from unstructured playing outdoors that insulates us more and diminishes the increasing possibility of mental health problems?
A STORY ABOUT “JOE”
Let me share with you some of my own childhood experiences as an example of how it was in the “olden days”, as our current generation would call it.
I grew up in Westbrook. I remember my younger brother and I spending most of our free time playing outdoors. When we were pre-school we were limited to our own yard, but by the time we were in Kindergarten we were freer to roam around a larger perimeter, because after all we had to walk about ½ mile to school.
He and I created a game we called “Joe”. It was quite simple. It had no moving parts or flashing images. It went like this: Each day we would invent something that “Joe” (a name we each took on) wanted to do. Say for instance, today we want to own a small country store. We get our red wagon and collect stones, leaves, sticks, chestnuts, acorns, dead bugs and the like to put up for sale in our store. We transport them to a spot in the front yard where we build a store shelf out of an old plank we find in the garage and place the plank on a couple of larger stones to hold it up from the ground.
Now we pretend we have customers who are interested in purchasing these goods. These are invisible “spirits” of people who come to shop. And, of course, the objects we have collected take on a completely different nature.
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