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    Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children
    Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children
    Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children
    Audiobook6 hours

    Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children

    Written by Angela J. Hanscom

    Narrated by Rebecca Mitchell

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Today's kids have adopted sedentary lifestyles filled with television, video games, and computer screens. But more and more, studies show that children need "rough and tumble" outdoor play in order to develop their sensory, motor, and executive functions. Disturbingly, a lack of movement has been shown to lead to a number of health and cognitive difficulties, such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), emotion regulation and sensory processing issues, and aggressiveness at school recess break. So, how can you ensure your child is fully engaging their body, mind, and all of their senses?

    Using the same philosophy that lies at the heart of her popular TimberNook program-that nature is the ultimate sensory experience, and that psychological and physical health improves for children when they spend time outside on a regular basis-author Angela J. Hanscom offers several strategies to help your child thrive, even if you live in an urban environment.

    With this book, you'll discover little things you can do anytime, anywhere to help your kids achieve the movement they need to be happy and healthy in mind, body, and spirit.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 2, 2016
    ISBN9781515979838
    Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children

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    Reviews for Balanced and Barefoot

    4.5/5

    91 ratings8 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Fascinating science that should be a required reading for all parents and educators. However, I found it a bit redundant and common sense in places. The narrator sounds a bit like an automated Siri... I seriously stopped the book and looked. Very robotic.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      It was very hard to enjoy the book due to the narrator. It sounds like AI and was hard to vibe with. A shame, because the information has so much value.
    • 5/5
      I really liked this book. She gives reasonable advice and suggestions. She’s gentle and well studied. And her message is hopeful and inspiring.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed the ideas and practical steps to include more balanced play indoors and out. To incorporate Simple changes to our homeschool days and quell my own mama fears—allowing my kids to develop holistically.
    • 4/5
      The book is good but I can’t stand the sound of the narrator. She sounds robotic and speaks way to fast to sound natural.
      I ended up only listening to an hour and then reading the book in paper form borrowed from my library.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Common sense info and a SIRI narrator. It seems common knowledge but, unfortunately, people in society need to know it's ok to let your kid play in the dirt. How sad for the children. It's good information that clearly needs to be made available and as a homeschool mom I find this type of book interesting, though there isn't much I haven't applied in our lives already it's still a good reminder. The narrator, as others have said, sounds just like SIRI. This book would be so much better with another narrator.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Having already read work by Richard Louve, Katy Bowman, John Ratey and Peter Gray this was more of a summary of information I had already been exposed to, rather than anything new or surprising. The biggest takeaway being that 4 - 8 hours a day of outdoor/physically active time is ideal --physically and psychologically for people of ALL ages (even infants), in big ways (ie cardiovascular fitness) and small ways (ie eye and vestibular function). This is extremely counter-cultural, and thus seems impossible on a regular basis, especially among school age and older people. But it is good to get these ideas out there and hopefully we can make a cultural shift.
    • 5/5
      Richard Louv's book "Last Child in the Woods" made the case that the outdoors is good for you. Angela Hanson, an occupational therapist, makes the case that we injure and maybe even disable children when we have them spend so much time indoors, on "safe" play equipment, and in supervised pay.

      We even need new terminology to describe this. Container Baby Syndrome (CBS) describes the problems caused by spending too much time in "baby containers", like child seats, walkers, strollers, and so on. These "safe" containers cause flat spots on heads, poor visual/body coordination, low strength, poor vestibular development, poor balance, and more.

      She tested three classrooms of fifth-graders who had trouble paying attention. They fidgeted, even fell out of their chairs. She tested core strength and balance skills, simple things like spinning in a circle ten times with eyes open, then closed. Compared to the average for children from 1984, only one out of twelve children could meet the expected level! [pages 47 and 48]