Blog

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.

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...

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...