Family-Friendly Outdoor Activities
5 Ways to Experience Nature and Reconnect With Your Family
Involving children in fun, nature-based experiences is beneficial for the mind, body, heart, and soul of humans as well as the Earth in general.
Child's play in nature has numerous advantages, including advanced motor skills, development of imagination, and stimulation of social interaction. By adding the element of a family dynamic, children can learn the importance of teamwork, trust, and confident skill-building.
Walking or Hiking as a Family
Outdoor walking and hiking serve many positive purposes with respect to family activities. Free or low-cost trails exist in a variety of parks and public recreation areas. Interactive or instructional hikes can offer education on local area flora, fauna, and history.
Being outdoors can act as a natural form of relaxation and stress relief through body movement, increased concentration on the present, and laughter during fun activities. Whether walking on sidewalks or on mountain trails, adults should also emphasize personal safety and respect for the environment.
Spiritual Activities in Nature for the Family
When families participate in mind, body, and spirit techniques like yoga classes in a park or guided meditations by the lake, a new level of consciousness can awaken. Spiritual exercises like labyrinth walking on church or park grounds can also decrease mental distractions and increase a personal sense of purpose.
Stimulated by complementary or alternative therapies, children and adults can enhance self-awareness, rekindle strained relationships, and spiritually connect with others in their community.
Music, Nature, and Family
Events like outdoor concerts and musicians playing at local farmers' markets can be powerfully healing for children and adults. Listening to music, singing, dancing, or playing instruments are expressive outlets that can relieve stress, create lasting bonds and memories, and promote individual or team-related talent.
According to sound healer Cheryl Melody, the choice of music and lyrics is equally important, "Words can encourage self-esteem, potential, creativity, and most of all enhance character-building and values of tolerance, sharing, caring, kindness, patience, respect for each other and the earth."
Camping, Tubing, and Fishing with the Family
Outdoor activities such as camping, tubing, and fishing may take time to prepare and organize, but the experience as a family can be rewarding. Parents can get their children involved in eco-friendly travel and participate in "green" activities like doing arts and crafts with recycled materials, picking up litter, and using organic products.
Especially for younger children, sensory experiences in nature can be enlightening. Kids can look for wild animals, taste pecans from the ground, hear rivers or waterfalls in the distance, smell fragrant flowers, and feel the texture of tree bark.
Family-Friendly Wildlife Centers
Visiting zoos, insectariums, nature centers, or wildlife refuges is a way to introduce children to plant and animal education, methods of planet conservation, and past and future impacts of personal lifestyles and professional industries.
Environmental or nature-based centers often have family activities like nighttime camp-outs, canoeing, discovery zones, and animal demonstrations. In a group dynamic, children and adults can be reminded of tools for building healthy relationships, such as communication, moral support, and dependability.
Further outdoor or nature activities that the whole family can enjoy are exploring flea markets, volunteering at animal sanctuaries, and participating in community clean-up projects.
By encouraging outdoor family fun and environmental awareness, parents and caregivers can act as role models and educators in providing children with a holistic opportunity to promote individual, family, and planetary healing.
Sources:
White, Randy. "Benefits for Children of Play in Nature." Retrieved from WhiteHutchinson.com on 13 August 2009.
St. Luke's United Methodist Church: Houston, Texas. "Labyrinth." Retrieved from StLukesMethodist.org on 13 August 2009.
Melody, Cheryl. "The Importance of Words in Music for Children." Retrieved from CherylMelody.com on 13 August 2009.
Enjoy the Outdoors by Fishing With Your Family
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