The Annual #NatureFix & #BlueMind Summer Analysis

For 4 years now, I've been keeping track of my hours outside during the summer. The idea came from the concept of 1000 hours outside being optimal over a year. Seasonally, that accounts for 250 for a summer (1/4 of the year), which fits nicely into a teacher's lifestyle of June, July, and August. 

In addition to notating my hours outdoors for 4 years, I've been accounting and measuring my days of planned, intentional days near/in water for 3 years (aka: #BlueMind). Both of which have now officially become an annual traditions. 

This summer, I've been keeping track daily in my digital calendar (Artful Agenda) in a daily section I titled "Self Care." and I totaled it in a list page in my calendar for the entire summer. Doing it digitally is a new thing for me as I've always been very paper-centric in the past with my planners. 

Here are my stats for Summer 2021:

My Goals...250 hours outdoors and 65 days in/near the water. Looking at my numbers--pretty happy with the outcome!

This summer, I hit my "grand prize win" with 64 #BlueMind days and water-oriented activities, and I hit my 2nd highest summer for hours outside with 297 hours. (If I would have counted Labor Day weekend, which apparently I have done some years in the past, I would have topped 300.)

Here are my stats for the past:

2019 was my big win of hours outside during my summer months with 326 hours--but it did include the first two days of September due to Labor Day weekend.  Close second with my 61 #BlueMind days of being in the water. 

2018 (when I was only measuring hours outside), I clocked in with 269, putting it at my 3rd place stance.

2020 I wasn't far behind with 258 and 56 days of water-centric focus. Kind of surprising given it was smack dab in the middle of a pandemic--I would have expected more...but sometimes air conditioning is for the win!

But, in view of the goal of 1000 hours of outdoors time over the course of the year, I'm pretty darn proud of myself for topping 250 for the season of summer--1/4 of the year. 

The takeaway: I feel more centered when outdoors and/or in the water. A lot of times, that's my backyard pool when it comes to water. Of course, there is the overlap between the two, but no matter what, it helps to keep me more centered.

I'm always more pulled to those indoor activities of work once school starts. But every year I continue to do this, I'm shown the value and downright necessity of equilibrium that comes from being either outdoors or experiencing water. It's more than just what feels good. Yes, certainly it is that. But it is always science. And it is what helps to keep me running on all cylinders. 

These are the things that are wholeheartedly important to keep in mind...because they are the things that keep me going!!

Image screenshots from my calendar. Promo code, should you choose to dive into Artful Agenda (which I love), is RV272257.

1000 Hours Outdoors

There are 8,760 hours in a year. Unless it's Leap Year, then it's 8,784 hours.

How are you spending your year of hours? It's a good question to consider.

Across my Facebook Newsfeed lately, I've seen a lot of talk about "1000 hours outside." Not terribly surprising to keep seeing and re-seeing that, as I'm an environmental education blogger who follows a slew of environmental websites via Facebook.

Initially when I saw it, I was thinking it was specifically a summer challenge. Of course, upon digging and doing some mathematical calculations, that would be a major challenge indeed at nearly 12 hours per day for the 3 months of summer!

Rather, the challenge is an annual one, making the daily goal 2.7 hours per day (think 2 hours and 45 minutes). Likewise, the "1000" piece wasn't chosen only for it's roundness notable-number self. Instead, it was chosen since that's approximate average that kids under the age of 8 spend on screened devices a day, based on the 64 page October 2017 Common Sense Media Report. Their exact findings for kids aged 0-8 was 2 hours 19 minutes. (You can find a one-page synopsis of the Common Sense Media report here.)

Of course, as kids get older, those numbers go up. Tweens (aged 8-12) were noted as using 6 hours a day of tech, whereas 12-18 year old teenagers' numbers went up to 9 hours per day. This does not include school demands, which of course more frequently include devices as well.

2 hours is also the recommendation of screen time from the American Academy of Pediatrics for kids aged 2 and up.

No matter what age, that's a lot of indoor activity time. Hence the need for a counterbalance.

1000 hours outside is not a novel 2018 idea. When I started doing some digging, I discovered it goes back at least 5 years and can be found on many-a-Pinterest Board. I also found some incredible places to start for inspiration.

• The 1000 Hours Outside Blog
• Ginny & Josh have some great posts and two phenomenal lists of 100 reasons why the outdoors is so important for your social, emotional, mental, and physical health. They also have a Facebook & Instagram page. 

• The Twitter Hashtags:
•  #1000HoursOutside (not affiliated with the blog above, but rather the challenge)
• #NatureDeficitDisorder
• #VitaminN

• The May 31, 2018 Mother Nature Network article "Could you get your kids outside for 1,000 hours this year?"

• Previous GTG posts on Outdoor Education or Nature Deficit Disorder.

• Anything written by Richard Louv, author of "Last Child In the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder."

As of this point of this 3rd day of June, I'm a wee 4 hours in. (The weather hasn't cooperated--nor have my aging/aching knees--and I've allowed that to be my stumbling blog.) A true 1/4 of 1000 would put me to 250 hours outdoors out of 2,190 hours total. Can I do it? Time will tell, as will my recorded calculations come August 31st. Stay tuned! 😉


Richard Louv book images from http://richardlouv.com/; John Burrough's Quote from http://emilysquotes.com/i-go-to-nature-to-be-soothed-and-healed-and-to-have/; 1000 Hours Outside Richard Louv quote pic from https://www.facebook.com/1000hoursoutside/photos/

Visual Reminders to Breathe in Nature

I've previously raved about New Age Creators and their videos they post in connection with SoulPancake.  They are ideal to watch when you need to rearrange your brain space and really refocus on what's important in life.

"All We Need is Nature" is a perfect "case & point!" The visuals in this video are a perfect blend of the great outdoors with unbelievable tech talent.  It is such a rich masterpiece of creativity, "maker education," light, texture, and nature.  It makes you want to get outside and go play, or maybe collect little odds and ends to create from there. It might inspire you to take a hike, to let the grass tickle your toes, or to play in a stream.  It's a video showcase of the power of Vitamin N: Nature!

Watch, be filled, then get yourself out there.



Image from http://naturehacks.com/nature-the-original-playstation/; 
Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egZKkCznJ0

My Backyard BFF

Today I reunited with one of my very best friends: my pool! It's not anything exotic, but that 18' diameter above-ground pool is my sacred summer place.

My buddy and I had been on a bit of a break--about six weeks smack dab in the middle of the height of summer. That, in and of itself, is a travesty! With two vacations book-ending July and a hole in the liner (& the time necessary to fix it)... along with a minor surgery recovery, I was in my own personal drought while the pool was out of commission.

But today I was able to return to my happy place. My personal space out in nature where I get to watch the birds visit our feeders and the tree-side birdhouses where they've made their homes. 

It's where I can watch squirrels scampering and scavenging on the fallen seeds from the bird feeders. I dazzle at the dappling light as it perks through the greenery of the tree.

It's where I exercise (which is huge because this kid is NOT "Sporty Spice" and exercising doesn't come naturally to me, unless it's walking to get in my 10,000 steps. 

My pool is where I relax (& same with pool side). Its where I read and really play with my kids and my dog. It's where I actually can be in the moment, doing my version of sun salutations. It's where I'm as close to meditating as this over-thinking girl gets. It's my source of Vitamin D, Vitamin N, & true energy.

And it certainly makes the hot humid summer days bearable!!

Even though the start of school is right around the bend, this happened at THE perfect time. Reuniting with my backyard bud was just in time to get some last bits of rejuvenation right before in back in business!


Image from my backyard!

Active Learners & Learning to Be Active

Yesterday, in my morning tiptoe through Twitter, I ran across what I imagined might become 2 future GTG blog posts. Yet the more I marinated over them the more I realized that they were truly two sides of the same coin--both of which complimented the eco-edtech focus of Green Team Gazette simultaneously.

My first discovery led me to the brief video below.  Entitled "The Voice of the Active Learner," it defines the digital learner of today. I know that in just the year-and-a-half of iPad use at my school, I've seen how the trends are turning, and how heavy hitting mobile learning is becoming in the educational playing field.  I often feel like I am a scrambling sponge who can't get enough or can't keep up with the rapid changing pace in education.  This is coming from someone who is a fairly connected teacher.  Knowing where teachers range on the tech-spectrum from compu-novices to fabulously fluent (with most somewhere in the middle), it causes me to wonder--and sometimes worry--about our nation of teachers.  I think this video does a great job of showing educators how current they do need to be/become in order to keep pace with the active, digital learner.

Yet, watching this video, I was struck too by how inactive (physically) the "active learner" can become with so much screen time.  It is here I often see myself reflected as I count up my own computer/tech-connected hours.  It doesn't take much to get me sucked into the "plugged in" vortex. Yet it is through this that it reconfirms to me how important it is as educators to reconnect students to the natural world.  The more "plugged in" we all become as a society, the more our Nature Deficit Disorder increases, the less connected we become with the outdoors, the more we become a nation of "Obesity in America," and the more we truly are in need of becoming "unplugged."   This is yet another reason why (as a nation) we need to ramp up our environmental literacy.

It was here where I found my second "find" du jour.  And why it made even more sense to combine these two "finds."

Bay Backpack ran a post yesterday on their blog about having a Recycling Relay Race.  In reading the article, I found beauty in the way they married a physical, outdoor activity with a recycling-awareness activity. As I thought more about that, and then again about the above video of the connected learner, isn't physical activity equally engaging?  Aren't we all more connected when our whole body is a part of it?  Can't the outdoors entice us and capture our attention--in the same way any electronics can?  Reminds me of a photo I've seen floating around Facebook and Pinterest:

In addition to Bay Backpack's Recycling Relay, check out the Bay Backpack's resource page for a slew of other lessons/activities to connect you to the outdoors.

  

While you're at it, here are some other resources to investigate in order to become an active steward for our environment.  Don't be surprised if many of them lead your students to become active learners in the whole-body, outdoorsy kind of way.

• The Environmental Literacy Council
• The Green Education Foundation
• The Children and Nature Network
• Other resources highlighted in GTG under the tag "Outdoor Education,""Curriculum" or "Lesson Plans"

Video from   http://youtu.be/CZ5Vy9BgSeY, green grass & iPad image from http://blog.ipevo.com/?cat=126, "The Original Playstation" from http://imgace.com/pic/tag/the-original-playstation/, Bay Backpack pic from http://blog.baybackpack.com/?paged=2.