Explore and Play.

Explore and Play is a simple way to bring back the outdoor free play (in nature) that has declined over the past thirty years.

A bit of a context.

A few decades ago, children used to play outside. Hours and hours of play without or with very little supervision.
Alone or with friends.
Climbing trees, building shelter, exploring risky play, inventing games, getting bored or landing in some wonderful imaginary world, where one could get lost until dawn.

Then the world changed rapidly and the roads have became congested with cars and fumes. Suddenly, safe places for children to play outside, have reduced drastically.

Today, children spend very little time outdoor and many of them have lost their connection with nature.
Parents keeping children indoors in order to keep them safe from danger and the loss of natural surroundings in a child's neighborhood and city are some of the causes.

Richard Louv has analysed them in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods where he also coined the phrase Nature Deficit Disorder.

The idea has been investigated a lot since then but we still know very little about the effects of this modern culture's disassociation with nature.

This is a paradox.

Childre are inheriting a planet where human activity has altered almost 75 per cent of the earth’s surface, squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet.

And yet, nature is critical to our own survival.

Nature provides us with our oxygen, regulates our weather patterns, pollinates our crops, produces our food, feed and fibre.

Nature is our best ally and yet we have somehow entered a “nature knowledge deficit” era.
We need to spend more time in nature and connect with it.

An embedded need.

Many studies demonstrates that we all naturally benefit from nature connection.
Even just looking at a simple, small patch of green can activate a series of physical, psychological and cognitive positive reactions.

So, what is Explore and Play?

Explore and Play is a nature connection session built around mindfulness and simplicity, where children are free to be children and adult learn to follow their lead.

The aim of Explore and Play is to engage with nature in a simple and spontaneous way. The result of this natural bonding is called “nature connection” and is a very simple exercise that incorporates many benefits.

Nature connection can be initiated in a multitude of settings.
You can visit your local park, take care of a tree near your house, walk in a woods, plant some seeds, enjoy your local green space.
With children the key ingredient is play.

But what sort of play? Child-led play, is the best type of play for them to explore nature. Child led play empowers the child by letting her grow into her capabilities.

Some of the benefits:

• It helps to build resilience;

• It helps to develop creativity and critical thinking;

• It improves self esteem and mood;

• It improves general wellbeing.