Summer. Clouds of blood-sucking insects. Biting flies. Ticks in the bushes. Sweat rolling down every part of your body. That fun daily decision: do you wear long pants to protect from bugs and poison ivy (and get overheated) or wear shorts to stay cool (and come home looking like you have smallpox)?
The forest is choked with greenery, making it impossible to play off the path. Poison ivy flourishes right underneath the best climbing tree, but you can’t let the kids climb anyway because there are too many leaves for you to keep an eye on them while they’re up there. You check the weather every morning for heat waves, lightening, and wildfire smoke.
And we’ve decided that THIS is the best time to play outside?!?!?
We do our kids a disservice when we let summer form their perception of what playing outside is like.
Summer may be when the kids are off school. But that’s not because it’s the best time to enjoy free play outside — it’s a vestige of a time when kids needed to help with the farm work during the growing season.
When we send kids outside in the summer, some of them enjoy it. Summer has its good sides! But summer has a lot of bad sides too, so it’s not a surprise when we hear things like this:
- “My son just doesn’t like playing outside, it’s so hot and buggy.”
- “I’m not an outside person, my family dragged me camping every summer as a kid and I hated it.”
Well… yeah.
I hate being a bug buffet in the 30 degree heat too.
But then fall rolls around…
Crisp sunny mornings or rainy muddy delights. Gorgeous colors, bare branches (perfect for climbing), and a nice breeze to push the bugs away before they even try to bite through your sweater. The geese fly overhead squawking, the toads and frogs are gloriously large, the fallen leaves are confetti for nature’s bedtime party.
And the children are inside.
Then winter comes. Mother Nature covers the forest in a glorious abundance of building and playing material — better than any play doh or slime, and stretching as far as the eye can see. The mosquitoes and ticks go back to Hell where they belong. (Oh sorry… all creatures are beautiful and special parts of the ecosystem… yep.) The forest glitters, open for any exploration, any building, any rough-and-tumble play.
And the children are inside.
Spring arrives with her bounties of mud and slush and puddles — a children’s paradise. We watch the yearly miracle of the dead coming back to life, the brave spring flowers, the bird song, the mysterious tracks in the mud. The forest is still wide-open for running and playing and climbing, and the few bugs can’t bite through our rainsuits.
And the children are inside.
Then, once the bugs come out in full force, and the temperature climbs towards 30, and the poison ivy springs to life… THIS is when we send the children outside. At home or at camps, we feel that now is the moment to explore the forest.
The forest which has been so welcoming, so beautiful, so full of fun all year long, and is now at its least enjoyable.
What are we doing?
People are always surprised when I say that Forest Play runs from September to May. I’m surprised when people expect outdoor play to be happening in the summer! Summer has its charms, but it’s honestly the least enjoyable time of year to be playing in the forest with a group of kids.
How have we let an old tradition of school hours, based on the needs of historic farming communities, convince us that “summer is the time for outside play”?
Outside play is so beneficial.
- For mental health
- For physical health
- For hands-on learning
- For sleep
- For growing into someone who cares about nature, protects the environment, and loves our planet
When we only give children space for outside free play in the summer, some kids decide they don’t like outside play at all.
We rob those kids of all the benefits that outside play can give them, over a lifetime.
We rob our planet of children who deeply, truly love nature.
We’ve got to stop doing this.
If you or your child believes that you “just don’t like” playing outside… please, give the forest another chance, sometime when it’s NOT summer.
- Spend a frosty November morning climbing trees and picnicking, cozy in your coat, wandering wherever your curiosity takes you.
- Pass a bright January afternoon building snow forts and slides under the trees, or following animal prints in the snow.
- Enjoy a wet March morning in the mud, digging and splashing and laughing, shouting “Welcome home!” to the birds overhead.
This is what outdoor play really feels like.
Don’t let summer taint it for you.