Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children

Great read! First book I have finished in years. Puts a lot into perspective of the ever changing world for children, and breaks down how important nature and play is! Helped me realize what is useful to my young children

I loved how this book was written from a therapist point of view. It has great points in it, that kids need to be outside and need to challenge themselves and their bodies. They are not meant to sit in a chair all day. They need to explore and discover things. Highly recommend this book.

Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children by Angela Hanscom is unique on this list in that it was written by a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of Timbernook, a nature-based developmental program. The author advocates for unstructured outdoor play as the necessary environment for optimal body, brain, and social development. But it goes beyond the obvious, even for us tree hugging parents. There is an epidemic of children who are lacking in basic human skills and these are the very skills that flourish with unstructured time spent in nature (proprioception and sensory integration, to name just a couple). Boiled down to one sentence I would say open the door and set your children free, and that may not be novel to you, but the depth to which that experience (or lack thereof) reaches into the seemingly unrelated challenges within your child is profound.“In nature, children learn to take risks, overcome fears, make new friends, regulate emotions, and create imaginary worlds.”

This is the best book I’ve read in a while! The information is so needed right now. Everyone should read this book.

This is a nice quick resource on why it is so important to get your child outside. It offers some insight into how to combat the cultural push away from allowing our kids to be independent. This book is very simple to read and attempts to backup the claims within. It is a sort of sad reality that some of the advice is difficult to follow. Simply put, it is time to take back childhood and let children become explorers.

I ordered this textbook for a class for school and I highly recommend this. Great read!

This should be read by every parent, teacher, educator, nurse, doctor, therapist, day care employee, babysitter, and anyone else who is charged with taking care of children in any capacity.The author describes in plain English backed by science how children learn through play and how to become independent functioning adults they need to develop independence and responsibility as children.Some of the information presented is very basic and to more educated readers may seem too basic. However, I work in a job where we see children who are struggling with every diagnosis from ADD to sensory integration issues. I have met the parents and many do not know even the basics of anatomy. Therefore, this book is appropriate for those people who know nothing about anatomy and child development to those who have a good basic understanding but want more specifics.It is very easy to read, uses a conversational style and lots of stories and examples of how to apply the science to grow healthy, capable children who have less rage and anxiety than it seems the majority of children in our country today.

It's not often that I give a book the honor of being life-changing, but this one definitely earns it. I love how the author goes into the science and details behind why we're seeing such differences in children today and how being outside is so helpful for them. I'm guilty of a lot of things that I think will keep my son safe, but have instead caused a different type of damage. This book inspired me to take up the 1000 Hours Outside challenge, buy rain gear, and most importantly, get us outside every day, rain or shine. I've been shocked by the difference I've already seen. I plan to buy this book for any of my friends having babies. I think it's that good and that important.