“Do you remember that spot? I do. It was right here where I first saw you and your sister and we just started running and laughing.” “Yeah! I remember! And we’ve been best friends ever since.” The day that this grand friendship came to be, these younger campers at...
Balanced and Barefoot Blog
Outdoor play and the unrestricted freedom of movement-based programs are vital for children’s cognitive and physical development, and help ensure that kids grow into healthy, balanced and resilient adults.
NATURE IS THE ULTIMATE SENSORY EXPERIENCE: A Pediatric Occupational Therapist Makes the Case for Nature Therapy
When I tell people I’m a pediatric occupational therapist and that I run nature programming, a look of confusion often crosses their face. “Huh?” they say. Or, “You’re a special needs camp?” Or, “I don’t get it. You’re going to do occupational therapy with our...
ADD and the benefits of outdoor play
When I was eight, I would sit down at the counter after school, lay out all my homework, but I wouldn’t get anything done for 2 hours. I wouldn’t fidget or run around, but I’d get distracted, get a snack, start to do homework, and then daydream instead. My mom tried...
Beyond Skill Building: Nature & Self-Identity
The story about pancakes isn’t about the pancakes at all, really It is a Thursday evening in November, 2020 and I am staring at my weekly planner incredulously. How in the world was I going to prepare for multiple assignments and an exam next week, visit with my...
Is Snow A Loose Part?
When you hear snow in the forecast, what comes to mind? Do you think of ceaseless shoveling? A slow morning commute? Or do you think about the hours of fun you had as a child building, creating, and sledding in the endless sea of white? For me, I look back upon my...
How TimberNook Changed My Approach to Parenting
Steve and his 2 amazing daughters, Lara and Mackenzie as they work together to bring TimberNook to kids in 2019. I became a parent in the early 2000s, right at the peak of the Baby Einstein epidemic. The working theory at the time was that the combination of...
Why I’m Glad I Built Forts as a Kid
By Jillian McCalvey I built my first house at nine-years-old. Not alone of course. Building something as complex as a house takes nothing short of a community. So, I enlisted the help of my two closest friends: Grace and Olivia. We quickly got to work on our...
Occupational Therapy in its Truest Form – An Occupational Therapy Student’s Perspective
I broke both occupational therapy and TimberNook down to their fundamental cores and made an important realization: TimberNook is not only a form of occupational therapy, but it is occupational therapy in its truest, most meaningful form.
A Post-Pandamic Blessing — A Deeper Appreciation of Nature
The evening glow is settling in. As the trail dips down, I feel a cool pocket of air around me. The trees are bursting with new growth, and I see three deer bounding up a hill in the distance. There is hardly anyone else around even though I’m in a park in the...
Creating Child-friendly Environments During Tricky Times
In 2019, I would have said that in an increasingly overscheduled world, play is even more important. Now, just 4 months later and in the midst of a global pandemic, I repeat the same message, and for a similar reason-- play brings joy. The benefits of play are...