Nature as therapy: It’s as old as the hills

The Federation’s Be Out There website says parents and teachers who get kids active outside will be helping them have longer concentration spans, better eyesight and be less pudgy

This excerpt is from an article in The Vancouver Sun.

No one has to convince me that communing with nature feels good, but more people seem to be taking a serious interest in the topic with national reports, panels and even scholarly research.

The U.S.-based National Wildlife Federation issued a health report earlier this month called Whole Child: Developing Mind, Body and Spirit through Outdoor Play. It says the average North American child today spends only four to seven minutes outside each day in unstructured play and concludes that’s resulted in fat, unhealthy kids.

The Federation’s Be Out There website says parents and teachers who get kids active outside will be helping them have longer concentration spans, better eyesight and be less pudgy. It suggests that parents and schools get together to promote safe biking and walking to school instead of the steady lineup of parents in idling mini-vans that we see in front of most schools each morning. For doctors, it recommends writing a prescription for nature for kids that are labeled hyper or with attention deficit disorders.

Read on.