Four Ways We Got Our Kids To Love The Outdoors
Rubber boots and binoculars, strawberries and shooting stars
My first baby was born ten days before the Winter Solstice…
I was terrified of getting both postpartum and seasonal depression. My antidote was to strap the baby on in a carrier and go outside every single day, even just for a coffee. At the time we lived at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge, and I would walk up the great ramp, surrounded by steel grids scrawled with graffiti. I needed to see the sun and breathe that wonderful, post-industrial, Brooklyn waterfront air.
Of all the fog and fug of those early days of parenting, this is one decision that stuck. Almost 13 years later, Mom decrees that we all go outside every day, in all weather. And it’s become, unexpectedly, one of the building blocks of our family culture.
I’ve written previously about downplaying the importance of connecting kids with all-caps Nature in big, splashy ways that require lots of money and plane trips.
But two pediatricians, Dr. Pooja Sarin Tandon and Dr. Danette Swanson Glassy, have written a valuable new book, called Digging Into Nature, that is earnestly trying to help parents foster a love of the outdoors in kids, in daily, accessible ways. They address so many of the barriers that families face to doing that.
First, the book lays out the case: why prioritize outdoor time?
It’s good for mental health.
Researchers found that spending even 20 minutes sitting or moving in nature led to a 21% decrease in the primary stress hormone, cortisol.
“Attention restoration theory” posits that the immersive sensory detail of outdoor environments allows us to relax, and restore our capacity to focus in the way that children sometimes struggle to do at school.
It’s good for physical health
Obviously, moving your body is good. Kids, especially, need to do it every day, ideally with lots of space around them. But also, did you know:
Researchers have found that certain plants (such as pine, cedar, spruce, or fir) give off substances call phytoncides, which are thought to reduce blood pressure and boost the immune system, especially if we are surrounded by them in a forest.
Being in greenspaces or around animals may increase our exposure to biodiversity, which is increasingly being identified as important for our own microbiomes, or the collection of all microbes, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses, that naturally live in and on our bodies and contribute to our health and wellness.
It can even be good for our eyesight
Studies show that children who spend 40 to 60 minutes outdoors each day can reduce their risk of developing myopia.
It promotes climate action
When we spend time around living things, we see the impacts of climate change, we feel more connected to nature and we are more inspired to protect it.
As one environmental policy group put it:
Accessing the benefits of time outdoors – such as improved health, learning, equity, economic growth, and resilience – improves behavior towards the environment in a feedback loop.
However, these 2 pediatricians have heard all the reasons kids don’t get this time outside.
Sometimes families of color don’t feel safe or welcomed in outdoor spaces. Some neighborhoods and schoolyards have barely a scrap of nature. Sometimes grownups don’t get home from work, and kids from activities, til after dark. Some kids have asthma and react to pollen or air pollution. Some have mobility limitations. Some kids prefer their screens. Phoenix had 113 days straight over 100 degrees this year.
The book contains suggestions to overcome all of this. For example:
Bring homework or reading or, if you must, even the video game outdoors. The app 1000hoursoutside.com has suggestions for activities to track and “gamify” your family time outside.
Plan outdoor playdates, gatherings with friends or family, or celebrations.
Find nature mentors, and seek out public and accessible programming at parks, aquariums, zoos and nature centers.
If your regular schedule (or the heat) doesn’t permit outdoor time, take evening walks or try an early morning spent outdoors. You’ll see different things and it can be really fun.
Here’s four things we do in our family that, I like to think, contribute to building our love of the outdoors in the middle of the biggest city in America.
We go out in all weather
My husband loves a hard rain. He has been known to go for a run, on purpose, just as the skies open up. He has instilled in the kids that when it’s really pouring out, it’s time to put on those boots and rain jackets and revel in the power of nature in a way we don’t often feel it in the city.
In the summertime, we try not to run the A/C too much. Only in the bedrooms at night if possible, because we want to be acclimated to the heat.
We definitely reinforced our “all weather” policy during the pandemic. L., my big kid, went into a “pod” that was held outdoors, and spent the winter of 2020/2021 building forts and roasting hotdogs over fires in Prospect Park. I figured out the right clothes for running in ice and snow down to 15 degrees. We took the kids skiing in 2 degree weather in the Adirondacks, and they had an amazing time.
We have seasonal outdoor traditions
In the spring we always go to the Botanic Garden to see the cherry blossoms. Summer is for Jacob Riis Park beach. In the fall we go apple picking upstate. Winter, ice skating in Prospect or Central Park, and usually we go upstate to spend a few days skiing and hiking in the snow (if there is snow).
We look to the skies
This is a little heartbreaking, but with living systems changing so much all around us, I have deliberately encouraged my kids’ love of space. This meant observing the full eclipses in 2017 and 2024, taking special care to view the stars whenever we’re in a place where they are visible, and reading about and watching videos of other celestial events. We have a moon phase chart hanging on our kitchen wall. I especially love August, when we often spend a few nights at the beach and get to see the Perseid meteor shower and in many years, a planetary alignment.
We make it yummy
We have always kept at least a pot of basil in the windowsill. Now we have a slightly bigger garden, with a fig tree, strawberries, currants, tomatoes, lots of fresh herbs and kale, some lemon and pomegranate trees, and a composter in the back. The kids don’t necessarily spend a ton of time gardening, but they love harvesting, of course. Then there’s the Sunday greenmarket in the park near our house, gently reminding us of the season.
I know these approaches aren’t equally available to all families. We have a car and outdoor space, which are rare in the city; we have 2 healthy active kids; we have enough money if not always enough time. I am grateful this book exists, and that there are so many good people across the country thinking of ways to get more kids outside.
On a related note
Little kids need outdoor play — but not when it’s 110 degrees