008 - Seven Ways, I Dare You

tongue twisters, messy patterns, and telling stories

welcome to 008

Playtime: a time for play or diversion. ¹

When was the last time you said, “Our adventure had nothing that connected to a cord or battery.” That was a sentence I wrote following 26 hours in the backcountry (complete with tents and cooking on a backpacking stove). It is time to mark in your calendar a fun meeting. You do not even have to think about what to do, it’s done for you in 008 – Seven Ways, I Dare You.  

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we all have a list

I find tremendous joy to look back at the blogs I wrote when I owned my own guiding business. In 2011, four clients between the ages of 4 and 12 years old. In preparation for the mile long hike to our camp, I wrote a long list of activities we could do, just in case, and tucked it safely into my front breast pocket. I would not need the list.

We wouldn’t need an adult’s guidance to “see” the outdoor wonderment.  In six hours, we took one lunch break, and ate our snacks on the go.  We traveled one mile, made a nature cookie, danced to the choreographed Thriller of Michael Jackson, played cow patty baseball, constructed a chipmunk trap (no success), hung a bear bag, built a fort, wrote in our journals, compared various scats, and collected rock of no small sizes (LOTS of rocks).

I still remember the look on the parent’s face of the four-year-old when I returned her to them. Her little pink skirt dirty, her eye swollen from a bee sting, scratched legs, a few leaves tucked in her hair, and marker on her cheek and upper lip from thinking (with pen in hand) when we rested under a scrub oak to write and draw in our journals.

It must have been nearly twenty years ago when I purchased my first box of Lynn Gordon’s 52 Nature Activities cards². I believe the set I have now is my third. At least a dozen decks have been gifted over the years. Nature and outside can be quite scary, which is why this simple box of possibilities is such a resource. I have used, modified, or completely refigured the cards for training ice breakers, journal activities for college groups, and imagination time with adults. It is important that we have opportunity to just take a break from the long list of need to be done, and dive into our creative and imagination.

With that in mind, here are seven possibilities for playtime. Each an activity, or variation from Gordon’s cards.

Nature Ruler

You need a ruler, pen, and paper. Go outside. Use your ruler to find something that is almost exactly one inch long. Then find something two inches long. Continue. Then, draw a ruler on your piece of paper but instead of using numbers at each inch mark, write down what you found as the reference. For example, one inch might be a caterpillar and two inches might be a feather.

A Tree’s Life

When looking outside, often it is the trees that are the oldest thing around. Spend a few minutes with a tree then hold an impromptu storytelling session about what type of life she has had. Explain why she looks they way she does. Maybe what she has seen in her decades, or centuries of living.

Nature Alphabet

Gather a small pile of nature items. Think leaves, twigs, rocks, grass, etc. Spell your name by shaping the letters with the pieces of nature you found.

Nature By Memory

Find a place to sit and set a timer for three minutes and simply look around. After three minutes close your eyes and try to remember as many things, or details, or even impressions you can from when your eyes were open.

Postcard Designer

You need a piece of paper and scissors. Cut a rectangle the approximate size of a postcard in the middle of the paper. Go outside and hold the rectangle cut out in front of you and look around, framing different photographs. Which is your favorite? Why might you be framing things out of the photo?

Questions I Do Not Know the Answers To

Write a list of ten questions you have about nature. Pick at least one of those questions to learn the answer about then next time you feel the need to scroll mindlessly on your phone.

Tongue Twisters

Outside, pick an object and make a tongue twister from it by thinking of other words that start with the same letter. Grow your tongue twister with as many words as you can. Then, try to say your tongue twister fast three times.

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yield emotional results

Let me remind you that adult play reduces stress, promotes optimism, supports cognitive thinking, and I dare say provides an avenue to be momentarily silly. For parents and grandparents, outside playtime is mentoring. Investing in the next generations development of an outdoor relationship.

Your homework for this week.

Choose one of the seven activities listed above and go outside with the intention of having uninterrupted playtime.

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takeaways

• Permission is hard, particularly when giving it to yourself.

• There is always something to learn.

• The next generation needs outdoor play. Be a mentor. Good outside and lead by example.

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sources

¹ Playtime Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

² One place you might buy - 52 Nature Activities — Nature Niche (nature-niche.com)

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