From where I am sitting in Granny’s porch I can see the top of a mountain called Morrone, with its five cairns like pimples on the horizon. I remember being marched up to the top so many times I know every stone and patch of heather like the moles on my hands. And that was only a short walk. There was nothing at all unusual about our packing the tents and walking for nine hours a day into the mountains, anywhere from Scotland to the Indian Himalaya. Complain though I did – all the way up! – I always came bounding down the mountain pink-cheeked, invigorated, covered in muck and scratched till my legs bled – but I was full of health and life. And I was rarely ill.
Children need fresh air. It clears the head, works out some of their troubles and keeps them fit, which is a very good start to being healthy. Those who think fresh air is what they get by watching nature programmes and keeping fit means using a Nintendo Wii are missing a very important trick. Not convinced? This should help:
“As families are forced to tighten their spending, more people are looking to their local communities for outdoor activities and with a large variety of activities on, it’s easier than ever for everyone to get outdoors and get active. Outdoor adventure and activities have numerous benefits – including helping to tackle obesity and providing opportunities for young people from all walks of life to enjoy new experiences. This can be as much as climbing a mountain in the Lake District, to experiencing their first time camping at a music festival to playing football with their friends in the local park.”
Peter Duncan, former Blue Peter presenter and Chief Scout
Granny remembers spending the vast majority of her childhood in the fresh air, despite living in the often bitterly cold East of Scotland.
‘We were outside all the time! There was little to do indoors – we had no telly or radio or even many toys – so we played outside: making dens, skipping, throwing a ball. Simple things like that. Our mother would have to call us in for our supper.’
‘But it’s hard to get kids out nowadays. There are so many temptations – the computer is always there, even if it’s off; there’s the telly and they have games and toys coming out of their ears. Going outside is “boring” so they often tell me.’
‘Well, throw them out then!’
Granny’s Pearl of Wisdom
Children need fresh air every day, and all you have to do is get them out. Once they’re there they’ll find something to do – to keep warm if nothing else! Just open that door, and send them out for an hour.
And there’s more:
‘If you can get your children to enjoy the feeling of being in the fresh air as kids, it’ll stay with them forever and the benefits cannot be overstated. Just look at you now – it’s hard to get you inside! You’re always walking or cycling or running outside. And that’s because you were raised to enjoy the Great Outdoors – camping, hill walking and just playing outside.’
She is so right. I like being outside so much I’d live out there if I could (so long as I had a comfy bed, a hot bath and a television, obviously. I’m not mad). And I can already see the same love of the outdoors starting to take hold in my kids. Yes, it’s almost impossible to get them out there sometimes, but once they do finally leave the comfort of the sofa and get outside they’re as happy as teenagers in a pub. (A pub garden, of course.)
What may have seemed like hard times, being forced up hill and down dale by ‘unsympathetic’ parents were actually far better times than many kids experience today, sitting for hours in front of their TVs and Gameboys, with their toys and videos and clothes and stuff.
Children need to go outside for a time every day, even if it’s only for ten minutes.
If you can give children a love of the Great Outdoors it’s something you can never take away from them, which will bring them a lot of good health and happiness in their lives.
If they don’t want to go, just be tough and send them out anyway. Not for hours, but for some fresh air time. They’ll find something to do.
–––– LIZ’S TIPS ––––
Make it a family affair. If your kids are really reluctant to do anything outside then get involved yourself. Go sailing; cycle together on a Sunday or go for a walk, which ends in a pub lunch. Anything to make it fun.
Even ten minutes is better than nothing. If the weather is awful then get the wellies on and go for a short walk – even around the block or to the shops. This can be enough to shake away the ‘fug’ of the day at school.
Set a challenge. ‘This year we’ll walk up small mountains’, or ‘let’s try a one mile fun run all together’. Something small that you can work towards can really excite and motivate children.
Lead by example. I love being outside and my kids can see the positive effect it has on me. So they want to do the same.
After a brisk morning walk up the nearest hill, which all but kills the lot of us, I leave my children playing ‘attack the cute, fluffy rabbits with pieces of dry twig’ in our garden while their dad tries to set up some kind of internet connection so we can check our email – sigh – and toddle off down the road again.
Squeezing through the gap in Granny’s French doors and making my way past the piles of catalogues, binoculars, weed killer and cushions, which fill the sun porch, I finally enter the kitchen and am somewhat alarmed to find her cooking an enormous pot of Scotch broth. This, in itself, would not usually be any cause for concern: she is, after all, a Scot, and broth is the panacea of the pennywise unwell: cheap, warm and highly nutritious.