Living Wild and Free in the City

It’s easy to get discouraged when you see all the pretty #wildandfreechildren pictures on instagram of beautiful children playing in picturesque settings.  

But what about those of us who don’t live in places traditionally deemed beautiful? How can we cultivate a wild and free spirit in our children, when we may not live in a place that feels as inviting?

For sure cities have so much to offer. Museums, aquariums, parks, culture. But what if you want your children to explore nature and be connected with the world around them?

This is the problem I faced homeschooling my 4 children. We live in a rather large city and don’t have the flexibility of just going on an adventure whenever the mood strikes. Also while our city may be large it’s certainly not as exciting as cities like New York or Los Angeles.

But I want to cultivate this deep desire in my children to explore and to learn. I don’t want them hindered by our physical location.

Instead of lamenting about it, we decided to do something. I scoured the internet for every place that sounded even remotely adventurous in our state. We made a decision that we would work hard to expose our children to these places as often as possible. Which for our family sometimes means just on the weekends.

This has allowed us to discover waterfalls, bat caves, abandoned mines, secret gardens, swimming holes, local farms, and so much more.

But in addition to this we decided to take the time to really see what’s around us. Investigating what exactly is growing in our backyard. One of our neighbors grows sunflowers which has prompted great discussions and art work.

We’ve attempted to grow different plants indoors but the lighting in our home is just not suited for doing so. This year we plan to give container gardening a go. As the weather warms up the plan is to learn all we can and then get at least one potted plant going so that we can observe it at all stages.

In addition to these things we also do a lot of fun things in the kitchen. Like fermenting and baking. My older girls love to help with our ferments and this has provided many lessons on bacteria and food preservation.

Of course it would be nice to just let my kids roam around freely in our backyard as they explore, but at this season in our lives that’s just not possible. So we make intentional decisions to get out and experience the world. We nature journal about different animals, and things we've found while out on our adventures. 

I focus on trying to cultivate a spirit of adventure in my children and build the excitement for all that is around them. Being wild and free isn’t solely about where you are. It’s about who you are! So get out and go on an adventure! I bet there are more places than you realized waiting for you!