My friend Ginny Yurich is here today to share the struggles she had in early motherhood and how a park experience literally changed her life. We’re talking about the importance of unplugging and getting outside on the daily and how much that impacts our children’s development. Ginny, who you know from 1000 Hours Outside, will encourage and inspire you to infuse hands-on life into the year and let your kids experience hardship to develop grit and resilience. Do not miss this!
If you’re a subscriber, during Happy Hour you’ll hear us visit about the importance of boredom for our children and get an extra shot in the arm to not quit the homeschool journey!
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Meet The Guest: Ginny Yurich
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“Hi! I’m Ginny. My husband Josh and I are parents to five children ages 12 and under and we reside in Southeast Michigan. Throughout our journey of parenthood we have consistently seen city, county, and state parks, as well as trails, campsites, and nature-scapes in general, nearly devoid of children most of the time. About five years ago we started to ask ourselves a simple question: Why? With so much natural beauty all around us (even though we take it for granted at times) it seemed counterintuitive that so many outdoor spaces were just empty.
With that question of “why” still unanswered, we did some research and read that striving for a goal of 4-6 hours of outside time within a day (what!?!?) was an ideal amount of time for children to spend, well, outside. This seemed excessive to us and quite frankly, way too long – most children’s activities are at most an hour (like a library program) and, many times, much less. BUT, we tried it. And you know what? We have not looked back. Our greatest times as a family, and my most successful times mothering almost exclusively point back to these fully immersive nature days. In time, we began to find that there is benefit upon benefit to this wonderful time outside.’
Links to resources mentioned in podcast and other important links
- Until the Street Lights Come On by Ginny Yurich
- Smart Moves by Carla Hannaford
- Free to Learn by Dr. Peter Gray
- Balanced and Barefoot by Angela Hanscome
- Glow Kids by Dr. Nicholas Kardaras
- Beyond Winning by Kim Payne
- Take Back the Game by Linda Flanagan
- There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk
- The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
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