Outdoor Nation

Alice Ferguson, Director of Playing Out, writes about the impact our love of cars has on our children.

I had thought about writing an article linking the recent ‘news’ that children in the UK are stuck indoors too much with the research published earlier this year demonstrating children’s loss of ‘independent mobility’ (a jargonny but very accurate term for their freedom to get about their neighbourhood under their own steam), mainly because of the traffic dominating our streets. It seems fairly evident to me that there a link between these two things, but I realised I am probably not qualified to draw any definite conclusions so decided to write about my own experience of parenting in the city and the effect that traffic has on my own and my children’s ‘choices’.

Photo Credit Kamina Walton/Playing Out.

Whenever child obesity is in the news the finger is pointed at crisps and fizzy drinks, and children’s ‘preference’ for watching tv over being outside and active. Whilst children themselves are demonised as lazy and screen-addicted, most of the blame seems to be placed on parents, which I take issue with. For whilst there are some things we can do to prevent our kids from getting fat and unhealthy – if we have the time and means, we can take them to the park or to sports’ clubs for example – I would argue that as a society we have made it extremely difficult for children to be outdoors and active on a daily basis and this is the core of the problem.

From as soon as my eldest was walking I keenly felt the impact of traffic on her life. It was impossible to leave the house without ensuring I had some means of containing or restraining her. When walking to the shops or nursery, the idea of letting her ‘free range’ even a few metres from me felt impossible with nothing but a permeable wall of parked cars between her and almost certain death under the wheels of one of their fast-moving brethren. I remember thinking that if any other lethal hazard existed in such close proximity to our daily lives (for some reason I imagined an archer firing a constant stream of arrows along the road) we probably just wouldn’t go outside.

Photo Credit Kamina Walton/Playing Out.

As my kids got older and gained more ‘road sense’ I gradually gave them more free rein but any parent knows it is quite simply stressful navigating busy roads with one or more small children who, however well-trained, are just not programmed to walk in straight lines at a consistent speed and stop dead at every junction or hidden driveway. I would bet that most of us have at some point yelled at our offspring for not stopping or listening or ‘messing around’ (i.e. playing) near the road. I certainly have – many times, even though I know it is the cars, and not them, who are the cause of the danger. Every time I do it I feel terrible – then I feel angry.

It is normal and healthy for young children to be carefree, thoughtless and a little bit wild – what is far more of a problem is that many adult drivers are equally unpredictable. I have experienced cars mounting the pavement right in front of where my kids are walking, cutting in front of them without indicating as they are about to cross a side-road or a turning into a car-park, failing to stop at zebra crossings and red traffic lights where my children are waiting to cross and honking at us as we cycle slowly and considerately along a quiet residential street. As well as this, the socially accepted norm of driving at 30mph (or slightly faster) in residential areas makes crossing most roads a hazard even for a fully road-trained adult like myself, let alone for a child.

Photo Credit Kamina Walton/Playing Out.

All this means it is not easy to let our 8 or 9-year olds independently walk to school, to the park, or even call on friends across the street as we did at their age. For me, this is absolutely the main reason they are stuck in front of the telly instead of being outdoors and active. Media-hyped ‘stranger danger’ may be a factor but I think this is overblown and it side-steps the issue none of us really wants to face – we all drive too much, too fast and without enough consideration for other ‘road users’ (i.e. people).

Whilst I strongly believe that government and councils need to take a lead on making our streets more liveable, I have also realised that all of us can do something to turn things around and give children back the freedom they want and need. For starters, we can all decide NOT to drive above 20mph in residential areas, even where the speed limit is higher, as this is a far more reasonable way to behave in streets where people live and allows children time to navigate crossing the road safely. We can stop to allow pedestrians to cross at junctions. We can drive as if a child might run out in front of us at any time. We can use our cars less. Someone tweeted me recently saying something like ‘parents love their cars until it is their child who is run over’ and unfortunately they are right. There is no point bewailing the loss of our children’s freedom whilst at the same time contributing to the problem as soon as we get behind the wheel. Those of us who want to reclaim our children’s right to roam and play out need to lead by example, think twice before jumping in the car and remember that our streets are for sharing.

Alice is Director of Playing Out, a not-for-profit grassroots organisation which aims to reactivate a culture of street play across the UK. Follow her on Twitter: @aliceplayingout

Steve Sudworth, National Trust Area Ranger for the Quantock & Blackdown Hills, writes about Wild Wednesdays.

In 2010 our National Trust Somerset Countryside team launched what were to become a series of events called Wild Wednesdays at Fyne Court in the Quantock Hills. The main purpose of these events was to establish a connection with our family visitors, to encourage children to get outside having fun and feeling closer to nature.

Wild Wednesdays are all about getting out into nature. ©National Trust Images/John Miller.

Our idea was clear, to show children and perhaps more importantly parents how much fun could be had through wild play and to make it an exciting option again for any who had forgotten, years ago. The theme was also clear, to show families that this wild outdoor fun was rooted in a connection to the natural world around us and to give them the chance to experience it together as a family.

We wanted to make it as easy as possible for children and families to join us which set us some ambitious challenges. We did away with our booking system, meaning that families were able to just turn up on the day unannounced and get stuck-in with no limit on numbers. We set a very wide age range of between 1 and 12 to enable families of all ages and abilities to get involved and we committed to running the events every Wednesday in the Easter & summer school holidays to make them as accessible as possible.

The Wild Wednesdays started small in 2010 with an average of 25 children coming along each day to take part in outdoor activities like den building and pond dipping and on the wettest days we would retreat inside for crafts such as clay sculpting. During this first year we realised that some activities were more popular than others after witnessing the enthusiasm of rampaging den builders and the excitement generated by a freshly caught newt and this led us as we moved into our second year to embrace our wild side.

In 2011 we did away with the rain enforced retreats and instead took up the mantra of ‘we’ll be outside whatever the weather so if it rains, bring your waterproofs’. The craft activities became part of wilder outdoor themes and from that point on we headed out into Fyne Courts’ mud and dirt at every possible opportunity. By the end of the year we could see that our Wild Wednesdayers (as I now call them) were coming with us, numbers had risen to an average of 60 children per day even in the rain and parents were starting to come along with a second pair of clothes for the kids in the car. This was a seal of approval for us to further embrace our wild and natural surroundings and so we did.

In 2012 our Wild Wednesdays continued to evolve, keeping the classic themes but tweaking them to incorporate bushcraft and camouflage for the den building and bringing an Olympic level of competition to the pond dipping with bronze medal waterboatman, silver dragonfly nymph and gold newt medals to compete for. We threw ourselves into the world of the 50 things campaign with activities such as butterfly catching, grass trumpets, wild art, snail racing, tree balancing and campfire cooking. We also embraced our natural roots by teaching children how to identify butterflies using ID guides, not just how to catch them and by involving the Quantock Beekeepers who joined us for a ‘wild about bees’ day bringing a demonstration beehive, complete with bees and fully suited beekeepers. The Wild Wednesday buzz around Fyne Court (excuse the pun) was becoming infectious and our families loved it with numbers increasing to an average of 102 children per day.

This year has been an absolute revelation with an average of 230 children joining us for each Wild Wednesday (over 1600 in total) and together as families the experiences have been wild to say the least with nest building, butterfly catching, moth trapping, fire lighting, pirate plank walking, snail racing, bug hunting and muddy barefoot walking a few of this years highlights.

The most important element in all of our Wild Wednesday’s over the years has been our fantastic team of events volunteers, who beginning with a core of just 5 and now numbering 15 have been integral in helping us to design, shape and deliver the activities that we have put on and the experiences that we have been able to offer not just to the children taking part but to their parents who are able to experience them too, as families.

The fun and excitement we’ve seen at Fyne Court over the last 3 years has been amazing but my favourite quote from Wild Wednesdays showed me that it’s not just fun, that they really can create a connection with nature at the same time. It came from a 5 year old who before a butterfly catching walk had never seen a butterfly up close before. When one of the events team asked him if he’d caught any exciting butterflies on his walk he simply said “nah, it’s just full of meadow browns”.

Keep it wild.

Steve.

Steve Sudworth is the National Trust Area Ranger for the Quantock & Blackdown Hills based at Fyne Court.

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@SmrsetOutdoorNT

David Bond writes about having time to be playful. His latest post was first published on Huffington Post.

I have just been looking at my calendar. It is full. Whole days have disappeared under scribbles.

With just two months to go until the release of PROJECT WILD THING, my feature-length documentary about children and the outdoors, things are getting hectic.

But for now I am determined to forget all that. This week I am on holiday with my family.

David Bond shares a bit of wild time with his kids © Green Lions.

I cannot wait for two weeks of being properly childish with my children. Having time to listen all the way through to that long rambling idea about how we could maybe build a fort out of that pile of logs. And then having the energy and the time to try it. It is the only way to iron out the cricks in my neck from too long hunched over a computer screen.

For me, holidays are about playing outside with my family. I love it. And my children seem OK with it too.

It is worth taking time to play with your kids. The other week I went on Channel 5 News. I was asked whether I get embarrassed playing outside. It is a fair question – plenty of parents do seem to get embarrassed. But I’m not. In fact I’m proud to say I play. I get the occasional funny look as I walk past pretending to be a robot (normally evil). But that is better than risking my children feeling awkward about playing outside, isn’t it?

Should parents worry about being playful with their kids (and other people’s) in public? Of course not – but it’s no wonder if they often are.

Last weekend Will Self wrote in the Mail on Sunday that he was questioned by police while out walking in the countryside with his son. They were following a tip-off from a security guard, suspicious of a man hanging around with an 11-year-old boy. With his gneiss face and loping gait, Will Self may not be immediately recognisable as a playful parent. But that’s no reason to cast him as the paedophile-bogeyman of popular imagination.

There’s a danger that our obsession with stranger danger will make us uncomfortable around children. A few years ago, a poll commissioned by Play England found that 44% of men would hesitate before helping a child in distress for fear of being thought a paedophile. This is insane. Everyday this causes misery as children are left alone and scared of the adults around them. And then once in a while it results in tragedy, as in the case of the man who ignored an unaccompanied toddler, who then fell into a pond and drowned. He did not stop to help, he said, in case he was suspected of abducting her.

We are scared to be seen with children and so afraid of what other people think that we have lost sight of how children feel.

Yes, they are worried about being approached by strangers. But they don’t want to worry about that all day. They want to spend more time outdoors with their family. That’s the conclusion of a recent UNICEF report on child wellbeing.

So this bank holiday weekend, please go outdoors with your children. It is free and fun. It is good for them and it is what they want (even if they don’t know it yet…)

If you’re stuck for things to do, here are a few of my family’s favourite wild activities…

Camping
There’s nothing like sitting in a tent with just a thin layer between you and a rainstorm to make you feel alive. My two children love lying in a tent with just canvas separating them from an imagined world of fairytale wolves and monsters.

Swinging on trees
I am very happy lolling about on a branch. My children like it too. Sit them in a tree and they’ll rock up and down like miniature-sloths. I’m still better at it than them, though. There have to be some benefits of being a grown up….

Flying a kite
One of my most treasured film clips is of my 81-year-old mother and my 5-year-old daughter crying with laughter as they repeatedly crashed my new kite into a hill. When I was a child, my kite broke every other flight. Now, for £10, you can get a virtually indestructible kite. I reckon you can get easily 100 hours of pleasure out of that. Do the maths. It works out better than any other toy.

There are lots more ideas of things to do outdoors on the free Wild Time App, available on the App store for iPhones. Take it with you next time you get out into the wild…

PROJECT WILD THING is released at cinemas nationwide from 25th October. Keep up to date with the latest news by signing up to join the Project Wild Thing movement.

That’s the conclusion of a new study into child well-being published today by Public Health England.

The report, ‘How healthy behaviour supports children’s well-being’, reviewed the existing literature on child well-being and screen use. It found that spending an excessive amount of time on screens (over four hours a day) was linked to anxiety and depression in children. Too much ‘screen time’ is also responsible for limiting children’s physical activity and opportunity to interact socially with others. Low child well-being was also linked to poor diet and a lack of exercise.

Public Health England is the latest in a number of organisations in recent weeks to warn about the dangers of a sedentary (and often screen-based) lifestyle in children.

Two weeks ago the British Heart Foundation blamed poor diet and a lack of exercise for rising child obesity rates, warning that children are at risk of developing heart disease. This could be, they said, the first generation to have a lower life expectancy than their parents.

Then last week the results of a massive study measuring the physical activity of six and a half thousand children were published in the medical journal BMJ Open. The research, conducted by scientists at University College London, revealed that almost half of the 7 year olds involved in the study weren’t getting the hour of exercise per day recommended by the government.

Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, argued that the solution to this increasingly sedentary lifestyle was for the return to a childhood spent outdoors. Speaking about the UCL last week research, Professor Mitch Blair of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health advocated a similar solution. ‘Children should be moving around a lot more and enjoying active play instead of being glued to screens’, he said.

In a letter to the Guardian, David Bond wrote,

‘Having interviewed over 100 families over the past 3 years making PROJECT WILD THING the big question, I believe, is what we can do to ensure that children spend more time outside. The evidence is now overwhelming that an indoor existence damages children and society.  Are we prepared to limit traffic, tone down shrill news about stranger danger, relax health and safety regulations and open up the countryside to families?  If not, we should expect to produce more sickly, unhappy children.’

The evidence is building. Time outdoors makes for happier, healthier children. We need to act to get our children outside.