Tips For Grownups
As an adult with children in your care, there are many ways to make a difference and help kids all over New Jersey enjoy the benefits of spending more time outside. Here are a few places to start for Healthcare Professionals, Caring Adults, and Educators.
I am a Healthcare Professional
Healthcare professionals include health care providers, medical doctors, nursing professionals, therapists and other health decision makers.
- Become informed! “Along with access to safe and high-quality education, health care, housing, neighborhoods, water, and food, the opportunity for children to access nature-rich environments must now be designated a public health priority.” Source: Nature and Children’s Health: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics, October 2021.
- Include questions about outdoor time and media habitats on intake forms/risk assessments.
- Display the NJ Kids in Nature poster at your practice or as an image on your website.
- Prescribe Vitamin N(ature)! Learn more here.
- Create a “Park Prescription” program and integrate it into your practice.
- Include links to local outdoor activities on your website.
- Practice what you prescribe – make it known to your patients and include it in your bio.
- Partner with local nature-based organizations – include their program information in your office.
- Host a nature event at your health practice site.
- Encourage your colleagues’ participation.
I am a Caring Adult
Caring adults are individuals who are involved with a child’s overall wellbeing including parents, guardians, family members, and mentors.
- Be a model. Explore and discover nature with your child.
- Enjoy the little things: gaze at clouds, jump in puddles, dig in dirt, hug a tree, go for a walk in the rain or snow, plant a flower, watch a bee or butterfly or bug.
- Play a “spot nature” game anywhere you are – in a parking lot, walking around town or on a bus.
- Create a “nature nook” in your home for displaying nature treasures.
- Establish an outdoor play routine.
- Create a safe outdoor space for reading, creating, listening and thinking.
- Get inspired and informed using the Get Outside Checklist.
- Participate in “Every Kid Outdoors,” a free program encouraging 4th graders and their families to visit federal lands, including national parks, forests, and waters.
- Learn about the animals and plants in your neighborhood.
- Keep a nature journal, take photos, make videos of your explorations.
I am an Educator
Educators include teachers, informal educators, out-of-school time professionals and people who work for youth-serving organizations, such as camps, day care centers and community organizations.
- Take your lessons and activities outdoors! Read, sing, collect data, observe, create art…it can all be done outside.
- Learn with your students. No one knows everything; be flexible; model best practices in discovery and inquisitiveness.
- Create a special space filled with outdoor exploration tools, such as a bug box, magnifying glass, small notebook or sketchbook, binoculars, and colored pencils.
- Place a bird feeder, bird bath, or flowers where kids can easily observe them from a window.
- Grow herbs or other leafy vegetables in your learning area.
- Take children on a walking field trip – around your campus, your playground, your parking area for a scavenger hunt.
- Organize a Nature First team to explore ways that outdoor activities can be integrated into your program/curriculum; engage local environmental education professionals.
- Create a “Schoolyard Habitat” for any learning site.
- Join “The Trailhead” or the Alliance for NJ Environmental Education, networks devoted to sharing resources and connecting people with nature.
- Apply for funding for outdoor learning and schoolyard greening for your school.
