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The Seedling BLOG

The True Measure Of Childhood

  • Posted by Victoria Hackett
  • Categories The Seedling BLOG
  • Date January 27, 2016
  • Comments 4 comments

The True Measure of Childhood

Maybe childhood should not be measured in test scores and percentiles but by:

  • the number of secret forts built,
  • the amount of nighttime stars counted,
  • the sounds of cracking campfires at night,
  • the stones that have been skipped,
  • the mud-pies cooked,
  • the waves jumped,
  • the trails ran,
  • the insects inspected,
  • the butterflies caught,
  • and fishing lines cast.

Maybe childhood should be measured by the amount of:

  • puddles jumped,
  • trees climbed,
  • knees scraped
  • balls thrown,
  • ducks fed,
  • sticks collected,
  • hills rolled down,
  • kites flown,
  • naps in the sunshine,
  • sandcastles built,
  • and crawdad caught.

Maybe childhood should feel like:

  • grass beneath toes,
  • snow beneath boots,
  • breeze in the hair,
  • jumping in high piles of fall leaves,
  • sunshine on the skin,
  • and raindrops on tongues.

Maybe test scores aren’t the best measure of our children’s childhood.

Let’s take the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge together! Check out 1000 Hours Outside and explore together the true measure of childhood. What did your children do Outside today? How long where they Outdoors? Keep track and share your stories in the comments below. Do you think you can track 1000 hours Outdoors?  Let’s begin a Revolution!

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author avatar
Victoria Hackett

ABOUT VICTORIA:
My mission is for every child in every school to have access to an Outdoor Classroom. Therefore, I inspire educators to teach outdoors and lead an on-line virtual community of Natural Teachers all over the world to create their own Outdoor Classroom story.

Previous post

The Natural Teacher's Year
January 27, 2016

Next post

The Art of Decluttering & Weeding
January 28, 2016

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    4 Comments

  1. atelieristaerin
    December 28, 2018
    Log in to Reply

    Can’t express how much I love this enough! And thank you for introducing 1000 Hours Outside – so neat!
    My students go outside for at least 2 hours everyday no matter the weather (we live in New England where it will be 60 one day and then snowing the next). We are in constant contact with my students parents to update them on what clothing is needed at school so we can spent hours outdoors safely. “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing” My students are privileged enough to have access to snowshoes and a variety of spare winter gear to keep warm. Thankful for past parents who have donated these items to us!

    • Victoria Hackett
      December 28, 2018
      Log in to Reply

      So thrilled!!!

  2. jeanne
    February 10, 2016
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    I have gained so much inspiration for setting up an outdoor classroom for my daycare, and a primary goal for me is to be able to make optimum use of our space, not just in our garden, but our full area- adapting it to meet the needs of youngest(16mo.) to oldest(6yr.), year round.

  3. annefoley
    January 29, 2016
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    Yesterday we played in the snow that was mostly mud. 24 mittens, 24 boots, 12 jackets, 12 hats,12 snow pants from clean to filthy. So today we opted for the parking lot without all the gear. It was bordered by small snowbanks and a little mud. We brought out shovels,trucks and chalk. The children loved all the space. The snow was piled into trucks and dumped yards away. They “balanced” on the white parking lines and ran the perimeter. We all enjoyed different play in a different space.

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