​So by introducing our children back INTO the outside what kind of benefits would we start to see? Could there begin to be a reversal of this 'disorder'?

 

Undoubtedly, most of us can and have experienced some of the physical and emotional benefits of spending more time outside, because we have lived and seen it for ourselves in the last 2 months.

 

We can understand why nature works and how it can help. Many families have spent actual time with their children, become educators as well as parents and although this may have caused stress what we cannot avoid is that we now all know those around us much better. Perhaps we can empathise with our teachers more because we now know how hard it is to prepare and plan engaging lessons and when our children aren’t engaged in something how hard it is to try to turn that around. We are only teaching 1 or 2 children, not a class of 30!

 

Because of this, our time spent on recreational activities in the fresh air have been a welcome respite for us all. The chance to run outside or to play in the garden or park. For parents the chance to breathe some fresh air and start to feel some of the tension slip away. It's a release.

 

 

However, behind the scenes, there is a far deeper cognitive process taking place here. What if we are actually starting to feel more connected with the outside? What if we are starting to form and attachment to it? We are all becoming more reliant on the feeling we all get from being outdoors is becoming more important to us.

 

If the suggestion that spending more time in a place or an environment strengthens our connection to it then it makes logical sense that we will then want to nurture and protect it. We will value it and want to care for it.

 

If we are re-introducing the outdoor environment to our children, as a result of the enforced time spent in nature, are we starting to appreciate it more? As online stores sell out of seed supplies and supermarkets sell out of flour because we are all reverting to baking and growing, isn't it natural to assume that we will feel more aligned to our food, because we are preparing more of it ourselves?

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That increases our connection to the land - where our food comes from and the farmers who produce it; the birds and wildlife that inhabit the hedgerows and we can then encourage into our gardens through bug houses, bird houses and the like. The fact that we can make treats for the birds and that this can be done cheaply and easily and the satisfaction that we all feel when we see the first bird sitting on a bird feeder we have made.

 

The pure joy of seeing a seed emerge as a seedling on a windowsill, that little green shoot of hope has a new significance in our lives now. We have succeeded in doing something new, creating a new life and when that plant produces a tomato or a strawberry how much pleasure can our children derive from that. How much confidence and self-esteem can that simple process build in them?