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Community Corner

Let the Kids Go Wild

Outdoor exploration a breeze throughout the park district.

I am not so old that I have forgotten how leaves taste. 

Mixed in a potion made by 9 year old chefs, made in the shady kitchen of hollowed out evergreen shrubs, we believed tasting it made us friends forever. We spent our day kicking the sky on the swings, coming up with even teams for baseball, climbing trees that overhang the schoolyard and playing games with elaborate, yet fluid rules.   Summer lasted forever.  In those years, I don’t remember parents, special day trips anywhere or even a television.  That era of my life is filled with bare  feet and lightning bugs.   

I want to grab hold of how precious that memory is to me the next time one of my kids calls out, “I’m bored!”   This summer I want to give them the gift of the kind of boredom I enjoyed.  It is easy to forget those days and how rich they were.  As a society we are forgetting it more and more.  Over 800 moms were asked in a study about the amount of time they spent outside as a kid.  More than 70 percent said they played outside every day.  Those same moms reported only 31 percent of their own children play outside each day.  A kid today is 6 times more likely to play a video game than ride a bike.

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I have asked. Kids aren’t cherishing the memory of a summer spent beating World 8 in Super Mario Brothers.

Kids are spending a total of 30 minutes a week outside in unstructured play.  We model this busy behavior for them.  Would it surprise any of us to know that in a day with 1,440 minutes, we spend only 19 of them in physical leisure time activities?  So, join them out there.  Teach them.  They can be well behaved and also wild.  I had too many walks with my children where I chided them to stay on the trail and not to throw rocks in the water.  I have stopped that.  They want to explore natural areas, not destroy them.  No fish is in danger of a rock onslaught.  Our kids won’t erode the shoreline trying to skip a rock the size and shape of a plum.  Kids are growing up without knowing how to climb a tree or catch a frog.  Let’s let them go a little wild while they still want to.

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The encompasses Oswego, Montgomery, Plainfield and Aurora.  There are 49 parks, 945 acres, 13 Natural Areas, 7 lakes and one beautiful river.  There is a place to explore right by you.   I encourage you to get out there today.  And go a little wild.  Get off the trail.  Throw rocks in the water. 

If you want some company with your outdoor adventures, the Oswegoland Park District has several exciting dips into nature this summer as part of our Kids Go Wild! program.  Recently Clint Meyer, your Outdoor Education Program Coordinator and the Road Warrior Teen Camp leaders took 20 kids through SawWeeKee Park in a survival course.  They learned how to make a fire, what plants are edible, and basic orienteering. 

There is more to come.  Kids aged 6-12 will be bringing a sack lunch and hammers to Fort Building the end of July.  Families are invited to come for a free Hudson Crossing Creek Walk and Clean up Sunday, Aug. 21.  Junior High kids should get in touch with their inner wild child at Road Warriors Teen Camp on Wheels.  11-14 year olds will be going to Morton Arboretum on July 25, Silver Springs State Park on Aug. 1 and Matthiessen State Park on Aug. 12.  Group canoe trips with lessons can even be arranged for your families and friends.  Call (630) 554-1010 or e-mail info@oswegolandpd.org for information on any of our outdoor programs.

The National Association of the Education of Young Children said that children who have frequent access to the outdoors gain a competence in moving through the larger world.  It also helps them develop courage.  Looking back at that dirty kid and her friends under the evergreens, perhaps that is what the potion of leaves, dirt and lemonade really gave me; courage, confidence and contented bliss.  I am not ready to say goodbye to bare feet and lightening bugs, and neither should you.  I will see you in the wild.  Bet I can beat you there... 

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