Nisargshala - Cherish, Conserve, Guide & Inspire
Introducing Kids to Mother Nature: A progressive approach to creating Happy citizens of the future
Outdoor activities are crucial for children’s development. They promote physical fitness, motor skills, and immune system strength. Exploring nature fosters curiosity, creativity, and environmental awareness. Outdoor play reduces stress, enhances focus, and improves social skills. Risk-taking builds resilience and self-confidence. Overall, outdoor activities provide holistic development and lay the foundation for a healthy lifestyle.
Many successful individuals credit their childhood engagement in outdoor activities for shaping their lives. Renowned entrepreneur and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has shared how his love for adventure and exploration in the outdoors as a child influenced his innovative mindset and risk-taking abilities. Former U.S. President Barack Obama has spoken about how playing basketball outdoors helped develop his leadership skills and resilience. Award-winning actress and environmentalist Emma Watson has expressed how her time spent hiking and exploring nature during her childhood sparked her passion for sustainability and activism. These examples highlight how outdoor activities can contribute to the personal and professional growth of individuals, influencing their character, aspirations, and accomplishments.
There are many prominent personalities in India also who acknowledged the role of outdoors in their success such as Sachin Tendulkar, Vishwanathan Anand, Mary Kom, Deepa Karmarkar, Abhinav Bindra, PV Sindhu Vanadana Shiva, Nitin Gadkari, Dr Jayshankar, APJ Abdul Kalam etc.
Its not only success or name or fame that human being needs. We need magic touch of mother nature at every stage of life, especially in childhood, which makes us calm, help us be at peace and be happy for no reason.
Why is there need for such program?
Physical Health: Spending time outdoors encourages physical activity, promoting overall fitness, strength, and coordination. It helps combat sedentary lifestyles, reducing the risk of obesity and related health issues.
Mental Well-being: Nature has a calming effect on children’s minds, reducing stress, anxiety, and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It enhances mood, boosts self-esteem, and improves overall mental well-being.
Cognitive Development: Nature stimulates children’s curiosity, imagination, and creativity. It provides a rich sensory experience, allowing them to explore and discover new things, fostering cognitive development and problem-solving skills.
Emotional Development: Being in nature promotes emotional resilience, empathy, and self-regulation. It helps children develop a sense of wonder, appreciation, and connection with the natural world, fostering emotional intelligence.
Social Skills: Outdoor play encourages interaction, cooperation, and teamwork among children. It provides opportunities for building relationships, improving communication, and developing social skills such as sharing, negotiation, and conflict resolutionn
Environmental Awareness: Exposure to nature instills a sense of environmental responsibility and sustainability in children. They develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for the natural world, fostering a desire to protect and preserve it.
Improved Concentration: Nature acts as a natural “attention restorer,” reducing mental fatigue and improving focus and concentration. It enhances cognitive abilities, memory, and academic performance.
Sensory Stimulation: Nature provides diverse sensory experiences, engaging children’s senses of sight, sound, touch, and smell. This sensory stimulation contributes to their overall sensory development and perception.
Resilience and Risk-Taking: Outdoor play offers children opportunities for risk-taking in a controlled environment. They learn to assess risks, make decisions, and overcome challenges, fostering resilience, self-confidence, and problem-solving skills.
What is this program?
Nisargshala has come up with a unique program for kids above 8 years of age. In this program, they will undergo varied experiences, activities, excursions and a perfect curriculum to address each child’s behavioral challenges as such. Our aim to to expose kids to the great natural world and work slowly with them in order to achieve the inner peace & joyous wisdom.
How are we going to achieve it?
This a structured still very unconventional program for kids which focuses on giving them great exposure to outdoors. There will be 10 outing near the city, which would give kids the season specific experience of the natural wonders around city. By the end of fourth year, a child would have visited almost all natural wonders , heritage sites, adventure hikes near the city.
Regular Observation:
Throughout the year, program staff will observe children’s behaviour patterns, thinking, and interactions during outings and camps.
Notes will be taken to identify areas for improvement and individual strengths.
Ongoing Personal Growth:
Based on the observations, we will be working to enhance specific personality traits, for kids they would be having fun, experiencing bliss in nature, at the background they will be learning unknowingly many things, inculcate many life transforming habits.
Examples: Communication skills, teamwork, problem-solving, resilience, and environmental consciousness.
There are four levels to which a child can be enrolled to
- Cherish
- Conserve
- Guide
- Inspire