Get Back to Nature & Connect With Your Kids

Hi and welcome to my site for busy parents who want to raise their children to respect and care for our beautiful blue planet. With a background in environmental biology and education and mum to a busy boy, I know your challenges and I have come up with some helpful solutions along the way.

Join me as we explore ways to get your kids away from screens and into the fresh. How to help your kids connect with the world around us. To think about the consequences of their actions. In their systematic literature review, Tillmann et al (2018) found that interacting with nature has a positive effect on the mental health of our children and teenagers. What’s good for the kids is just as good for the rest of us as Qwynne et al (2021) found in their review of the scientific literature. Most of the studies they evaluated demonstrated “at least one positive association between nature-based recreation and mental health”. Some of the improvements that were identified include cognition and well-being; they also saw a reduction in symptoms of mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression. So let’s get out with our kids and connect with nature, not just to learn about our planet but for our own health!

I will share some of the ways that my family reduces our environmental impact and how we do it on a budget. Did you know that environmental solutions will save you money? With ever-increasing costs these days, this is so important for all us right now. In our high-tech world that relies on fossil fuels, it’s almost impossible to eliminate our impact on the planet but we can reduce it. It’s a lot easier than you think!

We can also use our consumer power to get big companies to change their ways and when that isn’t enough we can work together to lobby governments to change laws and regulations to support environmental protection. I will show you some ways you can reach out and effect change.

Join me on this journey for a better world for our children!

Citations

Qwynne Lackey, N., Tysor, D.A., McNay, G.D., Joyner, L., Baker, K.H., & Hodge, C. (2021) Mental health benefits of nature-based recreation: a systematic review. Annals of Leisure Research, 24(3), 379-393. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2019.1655459

Tillmann S, Tobin D, Avison W, &  Gilliland, J. (2018). Mental health benefits of interactions with nature in children and teenagers: a systematic review. J Epidemiol Community Health. Retrieved September 29, 2023, from https://jech.bmj.com/content/72/10/958

Check out my blog at forestmum.com