Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children.

Ms. Jackson read this book with intentionality. The book served as a resource to help create an outdoor setting with a curriculum to support young children’s wellbeing during the pandemic. The author, Ms. Hanscom, was the keynote speaker at a Fairfax Futures www.fairfaxfutures org. Symposium covering the Therapeutic Value of Outdoor Play. Ms. Hanscom is a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of Timber Nook, www.timbernook.com/. Fast forwarding, Ms. Jackson also participated in a follow-up online virtual series.

With this background and participation, she found the book very useful. The book offers engaging ways (with best practices, examples, and research data) to help ensure that children grow into capable, healthy balanced, and resilient adults. The recommendations in the book support our outdoor play area:

We are applying the knowledge and added resources gained from the book and the mentioned-on-line discussion to expand our curriculum creation to support our children’s natural sensory experiences and build a solid early learning foundation in all the developmental domains.