Where your children play.

Trailer for the movie "Play Again"

When I saw this video a couple years ago It gave me so much to think about that I began researching the benefits of being outdoors and the negative outcomes our children have suffered from the deep changes this generation has encounter. The video first made me think of how lucky I had been during my childhood when being outside and playing with friends almost everyday was the norm... It made me think hard about whether technology was as bad as it sounded during the video and I decided that (in my perspective) it isn’t technology itself that is negative but a lack of balance between screen time and outdoor time what gives technology a spot light in the debate… It made me reflect on the many opportunities to interact with the outdoors that need to be rediscovered and reinvented as our communities continue to change.

I especially enjoyed hearing the sentence “We are hard wired to need nature ...We like to see natural landscapes, we don’t do so well when we don’t have that kind of experiences” Thank you Richard Louv! I am not going crazy when I feel that  I won’t be able to finish an assignment unless I get outdoors or  that my creativity starts to go down unless I get some quality time outdoors!! Also,  I have seen similar reactions in children.

This is me... and you?

Thank you to  Maureen C. and Mat G. for this picture and for keeping nature as an essential part of  our nephew's life .

This is my initial blog post of many to come.

My name is Silvia and I am a Child Development professional who enjoys being outdoors and learning about outdoor activities both for my professional career, as well as, for my personal life.

My goal with this blog is to start conversations with parents of Infants and Toddlers that are interested in outdoor activities, trying to add more outdoor activities, or consider that outdoor activities are in no way necessary in their children's lives. These conversations could help all of us develop a better understanding of how outdoor activities  help children's healthy development.

When I was a preschool teacher,