Ways to relax while still getting outdoors

Stay Grounded and Creative with These Nature-Themed Activities

Life
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It seems like everyone is staying home these days. Whether it's because of a mandatory order or out of an abundance of precaution, people are staying close to home and limiting travel. Social distancing is incredibly important to stop the spread of COVID-19, but staying at home means we suddenly have a lot more time on our hands. But that doesn't mean we have to be bored! There's still plenty to keep us busy as we shelter in place or practice social distancing. We've thought of some easy, outdoor-oriented activities you can do while on a walk or while getting some fresh air with your kids.

Activities for Adults

  • Do an outdoor guided meditation. These are difficult times and anxiety might be higher than normal. Meditation is proven to help lower stress and anxiety, as is going outdoors. Why not combine the two? There are a lot of free guided meditation online or on Youtube. We recommend going on a short walk, then finding somewhere to sit and meditate. Walking meditations are also a great way to stretch your legs while practicing mindfulness.
  • This is a great time to try a new hobby! Why not take up gardening? Gardening can help lower stress and anxiety, burn calories, and help you get outside more. Plus, you can also grow your own food! A meal just tastes better when the produce comes from your own backyard, right? Before you pick up your trowel, check out our guides on soil, composting, and growing veggies indoors (in case you're an apartment dweller).
  • Take a sketchbook with you on your next walk and sketch five things that make you happy. This could be a beautiful flower, a cute dog, or even just the sunny sky! This is a great way to keep you present during your walk and a way to focus on the positive.

Activities for Kids

  • Take a walk around your neighborhood or visit an open space or park for a hike and bring a pouch to collect natural objects such as flowers, rocks, leaves, sticks, and pinecones. It's a great way to have kids notice what's around them and to appreciate the beauty in what may seem like everyday objects. Then when you get home, have the kids organize the objects into alphabet letters or numbers and glue them to form nature collages. If you have older kids, use these objects to illustrate a scene from a favorite book or to make nature art.
  • We're definitely on board with getting outside for a bit of exercise, but kids sometimes it takes a bit of work to keep kids interested. Another idea for a hike or walk outside is to give your kids a camera (or your phone) and have them take pictures of things that they think are interesting or beautiful. Could be a flower, unusual shaped tree, colorful mailbox, or anything else they see. When you get home, print the pictures and have the kids make a collage. If you have older kids, have them write a story with the collage as an inspiration.
  • Another way to keep an outdoor walk interesting for kids is to bring a notebook and have them draw a map of your walk as you go. Make sure to note landmarks, unique natural features, or streets in your neighborhood. For older kids, this activity can become more challenging by having them note distance, elevation, and cardinal directions.
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Have a budding artist in your family 👨‍🎨?

DIY finger paint is a fun, non-toxic way to get creative! Take yogurt (we like nonfat greek yogurt) and divide it into small containers. Then mix some food coloring into each container. That’s all you need to have a fun, easy art project! Just make sure to save some wall space for the art show. 🎨 ⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ .⁠ ⁠ ⁠
#nontoxicliving #drawing #creative #becausehealth #creativity #painting #fun #paint #artist #children #diyfingerpaint #art #fingerpaint #diy #nontoxic #summer #kids instagram @because_health-instagram
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Family
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A Truly Non-Toxic Finger Paint Made With Just 2 Ingredients- Yogurt and Food Coloring

Because "non-toxic" finger paint might not really be non-toxic

If you have a little artist who's still too young to know that paint isn't food, you might want to consider making your own safe and edible paint. It might not surprise you that paints and other art supplies labeled as "non-toxic" might not really be non-toxic. Unfortunately, there's no real guarantee what's in your paint because most ingredients in commercially available paints don't have to be disclosed.

However, scientists do know that pigments used in paints can contain toxic metals like cadmium, lead, and nickel. And preservatives need to be added to a lot of water-based paints so the product can sit on the shelf and not rot or mold before being used.

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Family
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3 Fun and Easy Ideas to Get Your Kids Playing Outside That You Need To Try This Summer

And Why It's A Good Idea to Spend As Much Time Outside As Possible

Let's face it, the allure of screen time is hard to pass up for kids... and parents too (who can deny that those 30 minute of silence when Paw Patrol is on are pure bliss). As tempting as it is to have shows on repeat all day, getting your kids to play outside is so important. Not only will it knock them out for bedtime, but outdoor playtime is good for your kid's body, mind, and happiness!

There are so many health benefits of outdoor time for kids that it's hard to keep track of them all. Researchers have shown that it can reduce the risk for obesity and diabetes, and decrease ADHD symptoms. On top of that, it can increase Vitamin D levels, improve critical thinking skills and can help boost test scores. (1). You might be saying, "this is great and all, but how do I actually get my kids excited about going outside?!" We hear you! In order to encourage more outdoor play, we came up with three outdoor activities that are super fun for kids but easy for parents to set up. Try them out this weekend!

1. Outdoor Art Time

Doing arts and crafts outdoors is a great way to get kids outside even if they aren't the run-around-in-circles type. Plus, all the mess is outside and you can just hose everything off after. One of our favorite outdoor arts and crafts is rock painting. We have the kids hunt for rocks in a variety of shapes and sizes and then bring them back to a station where they can paint some funny faces on them. It's so fun to see their creativity at work!

Another activity is creating hammered artwork from nature (we'll explain). This one requires a bit more parental supervision, but it's totally worth it. The kids go and collect a variety of leaves, grasses, and flowers and then pound them between sheets of paper with a wooden mallet or hammer. The colors and shapes transfer to the paper to create some seriously cool art. We find that a thicker textured paper like watercolor paper produces the best results. Kids enjoy this so much they'll ask to do it over and over again!

2. Adjective Scavenger Hunt

What if we told you that with just a few minutes of prep you could keep your kids outdoors and occupied for what can seem like countless hours? Sound too good to be true? An outdoor scavenger hunt will do just that! We like to make lists of adjectives (like soft, hard, green, round, pointy, long...etc.) and give the kids a basket to go find things in the backyard or neighborhood park that fit the description. Sometimes we even have the kids come back and do a show and tell and compare the objects they found.

3. Water Gun Freeze Tag

This one is a great activity as it starts warming up outside! Get a couple of water guns or squirt bottles and use them to play a version of freeze tag. Our version: someone is designated "it" and if they spray another player with water, they are frozen. If another player tags them, then they are unfrozen and can start running around again. Sometimes the game just devolves into everyone running around spraying everyone else, and that's fine by us! Feel free to kick back and enjoy a glass of wine and watch, but we find it pretty tempting to play too.

So there you have it- three easy outdoor activities that will help your kids get off their screens and back outside. We hope that they are a hit with your kids and will be on repeat all summer.


References

  1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/...
outdoor play summer water art obesity diabetes adhd scavenger hunt kids
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“The face of climate change isn’t a polar bear, it’s my grandson.” - Gina McCarthy, former U.S. @epagov administrator.

While this polar bear grabs our attention and helps make the case for climate change, it’s important to remember that climate change will affect future generations, and they are also the reason we need to act to make changes. This week is the #globalclimateactionsummit in #sanfrancisco and the focus of the conference is raising awareness and coming up with ways to combat climate change. We are aware of the multitude of health effects climate change can cause and are looking forward to potential solutions and steps forward that come out of this conference. We can change the future by working together to identify solutions. #becausehealth #climatechange #solutions #worktogether #Repost @sfgate ・・・ Have you seen the giant polar bear sculpture in front of the Ferry Building? It’s 35 feet high and in town this week for the Global Climate Action Summit. Thanks @neha_ann for the #regram For story click link on @sfgate profile.
#repost #climatechange #art #regram #onlyinsf #bayarea #worktogether #solutions #globalclimateactionsummit #sanfrancisco #ferrybuilding #becausehealth #sf #polarbear @epagov @sfgate @neha_ann instagram @because_health-instagram San Francisco, California #Repost
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