Kids LOVE to Play in the Rain!

When it rains and we tell our kids to stay inside to build a fort in the living room, we forget about two important things kids need to develop as they grow up - resiliency and wonder.  "Children aren’t born with a weather bias, but they can quickly pick up on adults’ negative attitudes toward rain, wind, cold and heat," says Sweedish-American author of There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather, Linda Akeson McGurk.  

Outdoor play in all kinds of weather does more than just help kids step up to the challenge of feeling a little uncomfortable.  It helps them learn to see and feel the world in a ways that expand their curiosity and create bigger picture connections about their place in the world and how it works.  The self-management and safety skills that come from learning to overcome a little discomfort are just the icing on the cake.   

Kids Really LIKE the Rain

Kids naturally find rainy weather to be fun and exciting. The world is different when it's raining - suddenly there's mud to play with, puddles to jump in, water to race leaf boats in.  The air even smells different, in ways that release serotonin and make us feel good.  Trickling streams become small rivers that change the landscape and reveal the basics of geological time.  Colors are more vibrant as lichen, moss, and algae brighten boulders and the trunks of trees.  

And, the outdoor world comes ALIVE when it rains.  Water, after all, is a major reason why the rock we hurtle through space on can support life, so rain is quite literally a fact of life itself.  Moisture-dependent amphibians take the opportunity to migrate.  A food web feast of worms and other delicacies emerge from below ground for birds and other small critters to hunt.  

Sure, it can be uncomfortable to be wet.  Medical science goes back and forth about whether or not cold, wet weather can impact our bodies' ability to defend against common illnesses.  But like many cyclical up and down aspects of growing up, being wet and cold comes and goes with feeling warm and dry.  Experiencing and acclimating our children to simple, manageable ups and downs helps them build personal senses of self awareness, control, and resiliency.  After all, there are tougher challenges ahead for them as they age through young adulthood.  Why not start with the ones that deep down we know they can handle.  And if you don't think they can - trust us, they can.  

A Week of Playing in the Rain

This week's campers experienced a record-setting four days in a row of playing in the rain, and they ENJOYED it!  Things like "This is the best day I've ever had!" were overheard every day.  

Of course there were occasional struggles, but no one called it quits for good.  No one got sick.  No injury was atypical- there were a few band-aids, maybe an ice pack or two all week.  Salamanders and worms were collected by the dozen, forts were built, vines were swung, streams were crossed over rocks and logs, "boats" were raced.  The children laughed as they waded in the water.  

They Wanted to Enjoy Every Minute

When they felt like it was time to warm up, or if the rain was too heavy, we hung out in a shelter. They played some games, put on dry clothes, refueled on snacks, and then they went right back out!  As each day's end approached a few campers would ask what time it was.  We always respond to the time question by asking them why they want to know- not to torture them, but to help talk through how they are feeling, and what they can do to fix it.  Each afternoon, after they had struggled through a little cold and wet discomfort, they weren't asking the time because they wanted to go home- they were asking because they wanted to enjoy every minute they had left.  

How Safe is Too Safe?

Decades of personal experience inform the parental decisions we make to keep our kids safe.  But how safe it too safe?  We try to keep our children safe from falling off a tree branch or a log perhaps because we remember experiencing a fall ourselves.  But just as we had to learn from those experiences (and we probably didn't learn our lesson the first time), so too, do our children need to experience them in order to learn to assess their own safety (we're not always going to be there to say "no!"  They need to develop that inner voice.  So why do we try to impose our will on our children when they haven't gotten to learn these things for themselves?  How do we grow resilient children if we don't give them the freedom to experience these simple challenges?  

Learning Together through Simple Challenges 

The majority of brain development happens by age 5, and there's plenty more to learn and build on in the years that follow.  Developing brains continuously need reinforcement- neuropathways develop through repetition.  As these pathways solidify, our older, more physically capable and mentally complex children experience the real world in ways that they will remember longer.  Allowing our children to experience the upswing from a simple discomfort that we can plan for, like rain, can help them learn to be flexible and resilient.  After all, being able to respond positively to life's unpredictable stresses and challenges is one of the best lifelong lessons we can teach our kids.

About the Author:

"Ranger James” (James Frank) was raised by a multi-generational family of teachers and librarians. 
He spent weekends as a child in the woods while his dad read the newspaper nearby and actively ignored him.  After two years of teaching in his own classroom, he decided he liked nature’s classroom better. Twenty years in, after developing and managing nature centers and programs on both US coasts, he started Lure of the Wild Nature Camps in Catonsville, Maryland. (Facebook page here.) The program is modeled on forest school and democratic education principles centered on free play with minimal adult intervention.  When he’s not actively helping people feel comfortable enough to let their kids play by themselves, he throws copies of Let Grow Co-founder Dr. Peter Gray’s book Free to Learn at them like candy from a parade float.