Make you Fink on Friday

In recent years we have complained about our children lacking adventure, childhood obesity and the like.

Check this out:

Instead of buying your child a boring old iPad for Christmas, get them a stick

Wild Network is urging parents to encourage children to play with nature and the outdoors rather than technology

The Wild Network wants to drag children off the sofa and get them interested in nature and outdoor play. Photograph: Grady Reese/Corbis

With sales of tablets, smartphones and gadgets predicted to soar this Christmas, many British households will soon be temples to the latest technology.

But parents are now being asked to consider a low-tech alternative – to root around in the back garden and give their children a stick or a stone instead, in place of the latest smartphone, and to swap “screen time” for “wild time”.

The Wild Network (www.projectwildthing.com) wants to drag youngsters off the sofa and get them interested in nature and outdoor play.

The network has therefore drawn up an “alternative Christmas list for kids” that suggests a stick makes a brilliant gift. Sticks, it helpfully suggests for baffled parents, are “easy to pick up, perform a thousand different uses and can be thrown away as easily as you found it. Great for helping with imaginary games, playing Pooh sticks, building things.”

Think that may be a tad tricky to wrap? Then what about a smooth stone “which can be skimmed or carved” or a pair of wellington boots for “jumping in puddles, wading through streams, walking along muddy lanes”.

A National Trust spokesman said: “Technology has a role to play in all of our lives but so does time spent in nature and playing outdoors – whether that’s a local park, green space or a trip to the country.”

The Wild Network was founded in September this year and members include the National Trust, Play England, the Scouts, the National Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, Play England, RSPB, NHS Trusts, schools, playgroups, local authorities and outdoor centres. They have all signed up to encourage children to spend time outside.

New research has shown that children spend an average of 4.5 hours a day looking at electronic screens.

Yes, get the kids outside.

Make you Fink on Friday

First a repost from They say it’s in the Genes:

Switzerland by train

“Yesterday, we took the train from Paris to Zurich, passing through the valley of the Rhone… past castles… medieval churches… lazy, picturesque rivers… quaint villages… to Lyon… Basel… and then skirting the Alps and lakes to Zurich. The scenery was remarkably beautiful. But the most remarkable thing we saw wasn’t outside the train car; it was in it.

A family of Americans boarded the train in Gare de Lyon in Paris. They took their seats, parents and two children. Tanned. Dressed in baggy shorts and polo shirts with little alligators on them. Even before the train left the station, the parents had given each of the children an iPad. Then mom and dad each got out their own iPad… and plugged in ear phones. From our vantage point, we could see that Dad was watching some sort of action movie, apparently with super-heroes involved. Mom’s iPad viewing was never revealed. But from Paris to the Swiss border – three hours of some of the most scenic countryside in Europe –none of them even looked out the window. Nor did they say a single word to one another.

Source: Running ‘Cause I Can’t Fly Read more

A couple of days ago I read a post that really disappointed me. It was about how to keep kids entertained during long journeys.

Then it went on to list a heap of electronic games and gadgets extolling their virtues.

Now I’m not criticising the quality of the post, it was excellent.

What disappointed me was the need to keep kids quiet. What disappointed me was that the kids were being deprived of the world and the natural wonders around them. What disappointed me was that parents had failed to teach their kids. What disappointed me was that we seem to have back-peddled into the Victorian era where kids should be seen and not heard. What disappointed me was that the kids were missing a vital part of growing up. What disappointed me was that parents didn’t want to engage with their children.

The world has gone so far off the rails, parenting has been abdicated to electronic bullshit.

Two weeks ago I took my ex and family to lunch, a costly exercise at a good restaurant. My stepdaughter, Ellen Suelen, at 14,  immediately whipped out her cellphone thingy (I’m not totally up to date with these gadgets) and began texting. I was so disappointed and I told her so. Ellen has loved this restaurant since she was nine, she loves the class, she loves the food, she loves being waited on hand and foot; and she loves the idea of no dishes.

She put her cellphone away sheepishly.

We talked, I said I had bought them here to enjoy themselves, to taste the food, to converse and to repair some of the damage of being a broken family through the separation, to show them what they could achieve if they studied. I had invested in this exercise, my investment amounted to R$300+. If she wanted to text through the meal, I would have saved a small fortune and given my ex R$50 and sent them to McDonald’s.

Kids should be taught by their parents to appreciate what is around them, if they don’t they are failing miserably.

We need to wake up and smell the coffee, not just drink it between texts without appreciating life.

Once again, it is ‘progress’ that is impeding our ability to be social animals.