Book Review: Balanced and Barefoot

I can count on one hand the number of books I can say that I wish I had read sooner. This is one of them.

Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela J. Hanscom was an incredibly informational book that, had I read it before T was born, or when she was a baby, would have changed my parenting trajectory drastically.

In talking with friends about various topics as my parenting has evolved over the last few years, I’ve often been told, “You did the best you could with the information you had at the time. Now keep going with the new information, and make the changes going forward.” While this is comforting at some level, it doesn’t change the mistakes made.

I am, however, grateful, that my parenting journey has taken me down this road, and that I have encountered this book to truly see why those mistakes were mistakes. I’ve been making many of the changes in this book for the last few years, even before I picked this one up–in fact, I almost didn’t read this one because I didn’t think it would have enough beneficial information.

BUT, after reading the beginning of the book, I realized how great this book really is! Hanscom explained the why behind the issues I saw in my own daughter a few years ago, but she also explained how to course-correct. She also did it in a kind way that was encouraging and simple to implement. This book also had more information that helped me to understand some topics that I thought I had a clear grasp on.

So, what is this book even about?

Well, Angela J. Hanscom is a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of an award winning developmental and nature-based program. She is also a mom, which in my book, throws extra weight to the knowledge she shares in this book.

She wrote this book to explain to parents why getting our kids outside is so important, and how not giving children outdoor free play (not sports or activities, but child-led play) was hurting our kids.

We see so many kids these days who are frail, weak, clumsy, with poor posture and low stamina. Kids are constantly sick or struggling to pay attention or sit still in class. We also see so many kids who struggle to control their emotions, who are aggressive, and show signs of anxiety. I saw it when I was teaching, and I saw some of these same signs in my own daughter before I started making changes (and still sometimes when those changes aren’t being implemented the way I’d really like them to be).

Hanscom credits all of these problems to the limited time kids are allowed to play outdoors. Between school, sports, activities, and concern about weather, homework, and dinner, kids are booked solid and don’t even have time to be kids anymore.

Long gone are the pick up baseball games with the kids in the neighborhood as they’ve been replaced with adult-led baseball leagues. Kids no longer ride bikes around the neighborhood for fear of stranger danger. Kids don’t play outside because our constantly climate controlled environments tell us the outside is too cold or too hot.

But kids need the outdoor time to play, explore, and be in nature. From the moment they are born. Nature gives kids the ability to use all 7 of their senses (yes, SEVEN). The basic 5 are easy to see:

• touch a pine cone

• smell a flower

• taste a tomato from the garden

• hear the birds

• see all of nature

But what about the other two?

Those are senses we don’t usually hear about: proprioceptive and vestibular.

Proprioception tells us where body parts are without having to look at them, helping us to know how much force to use (or not use) when performing many tasks. Kids used to engage this through daily rhythms of playing with a wagon filled with friends or toys, picking up rocks or small logs to create a fort or block a stream, digging in the dirt or sand, or even through chores like shoveling snow. But so many kids don’t have the opportunity or desire to do these tasks anymore.

The vestibular sense is commonly known as the balance sense or body/space awareness. Kids engage this sense by moving their body in ways that challenge gravity–think, going upside down, spinning, tumbling, and swinging. If you think about most playgrounds today, all the equipment that promotes these activities are slowly disappearing–monkey bars, hanging bars, merry-go-rounds, and swings that have longer chains.

Nature is a great place to start to engage all of these senses. There are natural opportunities for children to practice each of these, without the need to bring something with us. But it means getting outside so they can do so. Hanscom recommends 3 hours a day! Now, that is a challenge for me! I struggle getting us outside more than about an hour a day, but it is something I am going to be working on.

Because, as the book explains, outdoor free play time literally resets our kids’ bodies and lets them use their bodies in the way in which they were intended with endless possibilities and without expectations or pressure. The outdoors lets kids take risks they might not take inside, challenging kids at their own pace and helping them to learn to build confidence.

This book is full of so much information, and really isn’t that long or difficult to read. While I borrowed it on Hoopla, it is one I will likely buy and keep on my shelf to reference, because of how much valuable information is within its covers.

If you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, educator, or know kids you care about, this book is for you. I can’t recommend it enough, and truly think it’s a book every adult who spends time with children should read!

Run, don’t walk. Or just click the link, because that is really easy.

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