The third grade classroom that was visiting our Nature Center for the day consisted of mostly boys – rowdy, loud, and rambunctious boys. As we started out into the woods, the children spoke loudly to each other in anticipation of what was to come. After playing a...
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.
Children LIVE Through Their Senses
“It’s mud season!” Johnny exclaims from the woods as he leaps over a puddle of melting ice. A warmer breeze blows through the trees, and he races to the once frozen pond to observe the lake that is beginning to appear. He snaps a stick from a broken branch and...
Face-to-Face Interactions Matter
“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...
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.