February 25th

By Mutt Mulligan

How to embrace being an “outsider” this winter

Our green space promotes outdoor living, contributes to family and community health, supports wildlife, provides recreation for families, and offers a home playground our children and our pets. TurfMutt loves exploring his own backyard and the community green spaces around his house. It’s one of his favorite things to do!

Here are TurfMutt’s top-dog tips to embrace being an “outsider”, even when it’s cold and snowy.

• Play with your kids. Get outside in the winter with your children. It’s healthy for both kids and adults to move!  Have a snowball fight, build a snow man or fort, or go sledding.
• Try something new. Cross-country skiing, igloo-building, winter hiking, ice fishing, ice skating, snow sculpting, snowshoeing, or something else that your children want to try will give them an appreciation of the outdoors in all seasons.
• Do winter activities that are fun. Weather that adults consider to be “messy” can be a huge canvas for children and their imaginations. Snow balls, snow forts and trees covered in snow offer a wealth of opportunities for children to explore and experiment in our living landscapes.
• Encourage exploration. Ask your child to look at how the landscape changes with the seasons. Talk about what happens after leaves fall, when snow arrives, when it’s windy, and more. You can link these seasonable changes with basic science about clouds, rainfall, temperature changes and the earth.
• Attend a community festival. There are many community festivals year-round. Winter festivals can be exceptionally fun and often offer special activities for kids.
• Remember how happy it can make them. Even winter sunshine can make kids happy! Literally. Sunlight boosts Vitamin D, which helps regulate emotional and mental moods by increasing serotonin in the brain. Even exposure to the weaker sunlight in the winter can cause this happiness boost.
• Tolerate some mess. It’s a given that kids and pets going outside in the snow will often return wet, muddy and messy. Be prepared for wet and cold kids and dogs. Be ready with lots of towels and a big mug of hot chocolate for the kiddos to get them warmed up when they return from playing outside.
• Process what they did. Ask kids to share about what they did outdoors. You can ask them to talk, write, or draw out their activities and observations. Did they observe something new? Did something surprise them? What was fun?

To learn more about the value of living landscapes, go to SaveLivingLandscapes.com. For activities you can do with your kids indoors and outdoors, visit TurfMutt’s website at TurfMutt.com.