HAVE YOU NOTICED that kids don't play outside anymore? Sometimes, if I happen to be driving down our road when the school bus runs, I will actually see some kids! I don't know where they are the rest of the time, but you hardly ever see them. It seems like they just don't play outdoors like we used to. I guess it's partly because of the computer, TV, and all of those video games and partly because of safety reasons with the world the way it is today. But if I were a kid today, I swear you would not be able to keep me inside. When we were kids, we PLAYED! We literally made pests of ourselves in our neighborhood. If we weren't riding bikes, or walking up to the corner grocery store, we were out in our yard, yelling and screaming till way past dark. Oh no, there was no chance you would only see us when we got off of the bus. We were there, and everyone was going to know about it! We knocked on our neighbors doors pushing our girl scout cookies and band candy till I'm sure they were sick of us. Summers found us with our butterfly nets, heading off into the country (yes, the COUNTRY, all by ourselves), walking miles, hunting for pop bottles and Zebra Swallowtails. Even if we weren't running through the sprinkler, or riding our horses, we still stayed outdoors...lying for hours in the cool green grass, just reading a book, or staring up at the clouds. Our doors got all of their wear from us just going in and out a hundred times a day. Today, I hardly know where the kids are. I don't know what they do or why they don't play outdoors...why they don't learn to enjoy the world outside and all it has to offer, but I do know what they are missing....it's a thing called "childhood". Yes, it seems that kids playing outdoors are getting harder to find these days.....seems like they are as illusive as those butterlies.
"Tell your child he is capable of doing anything he dreams of, and
someday he will become everything you dreamed of."
( Linda Poindexter )
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