Do you remember playing outside when you were a child? Climbing
trees, building forts, sliding down hills, digging holes, sailing
boats in the gutter? If you
’re over 40 you probably do, but many of our younger citizens
may not.
Do you remember playing outside when you were a child? Climbing trees, building forts, sliding down hills, digging holes, sailing boats in the gutter? If you’re over 40 you probably do, but many of our younger citizens may not.
According to Marlene Anne Bumgarner, author of Working With School Age Children, today’s children spend most of their daytime hours in school, in child care, participating in organized activities such as sports or music lessons, or in front of a television or computer screen. Even when opportunities for free play occur, according to Bumgarner, many children have lost the ability to engage in independent creative pursuits (or never developed it).
Some of the results of this highly structured and primarily sedentary lifestyle are soaring childhood rates of obesity, high cholesterol, and diabetes, as well as seriously reduced levels of school success.
Details: 848-4805.
