Ten things your child needs to do

When we have a young child, we are overwhelmed by conflicting messages about the things we should offer children, the experiences, educational resources and achievements in their autonomy that seems to be in a hurry for them to achieve before the age of six: sleep only at a stretch, read or leave diapers.

However, sometimes we forget how important the real experience with nature and materials is. We will talk about that and I will propose 10 things that I think all children need to be able to do in their childhood.

Get dirty

Get dirty: with mud, water, sand, dry leaves, wet grass, dust from the roads, rain on the hair, straw from the stable. Stain what they need, without fear of dirt, or that the clothes are spoiled, not even the cold. Stain without worry, feeling the experience of natural matter.

Roll over a meadow, step on the dungs ​​of a cow, pet an animal, have your hands full of mud and moss from a tree. Finish with the soaked slime shoes of a creek.

Eat food that you gather from Nature with your own hands

Surely many, when you were children, you discovered the pleasure of eating something caught with your own hands. I ate pears and green apples from a tree where I climbed, blackberries on the road, autumn mushrooms (supervised by an expert), wild asparagus and fennel, fallen nuts and pine nuts, raspberries, acacia flowers, wheat green, bell nectar, the sweet juice of a blade of grass, ripe figs, eggs of newly laid hens, milk milked with my own hands.

If possible, to offer this wonderful experience to children, in country walks, it is worth it.

And if we have the opportunity to grow them ourselves at home or in the garden, it is another wonderful experience to plant, water and take care of the vegetables and then enjoy them fresh and full of flavor.

Build a shelter

We have built many shelters. In the forest, with fallen branches; on the beach, with the trunks dragged by the sea; in the desert, with palm leaves, stones and reeds. Inventing a place to hide, an adventure of shipwrecks or prehistoric men.

Feel the elements

Directly feel the strength and diversity of the elements of Nature It is exciting, fun and educational. Let's not deprive children of the wind in the face, the rain in the hair.

Put your feet in the river, splash in the puddles, touch the ice with your hand in winter, tear an icicle. Roll in the grass and snow. Throw muddy balls. Let a storm surround you. Kick the autumn leaves. Smell the spring flowers. Explore a forest, a cave (small), walk aimlessly in a natural setting. Climb a mountain until you can see the horizon and smell the air from the heights.

Discover animals in freedom

Look at the tadpoles in a pond, fish in a stream, observe birds in freedom, get lost in the flight of flamingos. Sit in the middle of the forest, silently, lying on the grass while watching the moving insects. The surprise of a rabbit that runs. And, if it can be, dolphins jumping around your boat or roe peeking, shy, among the trees. Listen to the birds singing without speaking. Follow the course of a river until you see ducks or otters.

Make your own toys

Another of the activities we forget, when they can be very simple, is to teach them build your own toys.

Making a kite and then, waiting anxiously for a windy day to make it fly is wonderful. Make a flute or a water stick. Invent a dam in the creek with sticks and stones, then let the water run free again.

Climb

Climb for the simple pleasure of climbing. For sure, but without fear, and accompanied if necessary. To a tree, a wall, a huge stone or a mountain. Feeling the weight of the body itself, the gravity that pushes down, discovering the places where to support the feet and secure the hands. Scratching his knees, screaming when he reached the top, jumping like crazy to remember the feat.

Light a bonfire

Light a bonfire. Of course, with all safety regulations and adult supervision, but turn it on. Collecting dry branches, with coals, in a secured space or in a fireplace. Giving air with a bellows or fan with whatever we have on hand. Watching the flames rise, feeling the heat on the face, watching how it is consumed and, in the end, putting out the coals.

Eat with your hands

You are right. Eat with your hands It is a pleasure that we should not forbid, always within the rules and adapting to the place and food. But eat some chops, a fish roasted in the spit, whatever, but without needing dishes or cutlery, with hot fingers and fat on the chin. It is fun, exciting and comforting.

Go barefoot

At home they love to go barefoot. And I tell you even if it costs me horrors not to be a heavy shoe.

And besides, carefully, we should let them feel the sensation of bare feet on the grass and the wet leaves, the hot sand, the stones of the road, the snow and the water of a river or the sea even if they are cold. Then, you clean and put on your shoes, but for a while with bare feet, with mud mudding between fingers, it is a pleasure and a sensory experience that you deserve to have.

These ten things children need to experience in their childhood they are proposals that we should approach, instead of prohibiting or avoiding them, as they are a wonderful source of learning, freedom and fun.

In Babies and more | Do we let children be children ?, 10 things that I allow my son to do, Children have to get dirty, Cities are hostile to children

Video: 10 Things Parents Should Never Do for Their Kids (March 2024).