A burnt-out Michigan mom of five has started a worldwide movement to get modern kids outside.
Today, millions of kids have joined up and are reaping the benefits of getting out in nature instead of being cooped up indoors on phones and devices.
“It’s been amazing that there is this approach to parenting that works all the way throughout childhood,” Mrs. Yurich told The Epoch Times.
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The Journey
It all started when the former high school math teacher from the Ann Arbor area, west of Detroit, was struggling to cope.“We have five kids,” Mrs. Yurich said, “and when the eldest were very little, they were really close in age. We had three of them under 3 years old, and I really struggled.”
Although she'd always loved kids and was excited to be a mother, Mrs. Yurich had a hard time with the day-to-day grind.
“I felt like I was drowning,“ she said. ”I was very depressed because the kids would cry a lot, and I felt like I could hardly make it through a day with them and all their needs.”
Convinced she was failing, Mrs. Yurich enrolled three of her older children in different programs in an attempt to pass the time; something that inevitably involved a lot of juggling and running around. She tried a little daycare program once a week, where her kids could go for a couple of hours, but none would settle.
It took an unexpected discovery to dramatically change things.
‘It Was the First Good Day I Had as a Mom’
When a friend told her about a British educational philosopher from the 1800s named Charlotte Mason, who advocated for kids being outdoors for four to six hours a day whenever the weather was tolerable, Mrs. Yurich thought it was absurd.“I thought it was a silly idea,” she said. “I thought, who has four to six hours a day, and what would a child do for that time with no toys or crafts? But this friend asked if we could try it, so we gave it a go.”
One September morning in 2011, they met at a local park in Farmington, Michigan.
“It’s just beautiful here in the fall, and we met at 9 in the morning with a plan to stay until 1 in the afternoon,” said Mrs. Yurich, confessing that she thought the day was going to go awfully, that her kids would be fussing the whole time, and that she’d crash and burn.
However, that one day was to change her whole life.
The two moms brought a picnic and set out blankets, and the four toddlers ran around playing, coming back and forth for food and drinks.
She said: “We each had a baby that we held, and the babies would nurse and sleep and lay in our arms or on the picnic blankets. The kids were all happy, and they occupied themselves in this grassy spot with no playground equipment, just grass and a safe little shallow creek bed.”
For what seemed like the first time in forever, Mrs. Yurich felt her blood pressure drop, and she enjoyed a pleasant, unhurried conversation with a friend.
‘Nature Is So Powerful and Healing’
Once she started proactively blocking off time to get her children outside, Mrs. Yurich began seeing them change in very real ways. Besides seeming happier and healthier, they were “sleeping better, eating better, and getting along better.”Inspired by what she was seeing, the young mom started to research more deeply and was shocked to read that the average child is outside for four to seven minutes a day in the United States. Meanwhile, they were clocking up four to seven hours of screen time.
Prompted to reflect on the drastic imbalance, Mrs. Yurich thought that if children could aim to at least match time spent on devices with free play out in nature, it would have a huge effect.
“It’s a simple premise, but the impact is very profound,” she said.
Feeling that a nine-hour school day was too long for young kids (the bus would arrive at 8 a.m. and wouldn’t return until 4.45 p.m.) the couple also made the decision to homeschool their kids: Jackson, now 16; Vivian, 14; Charlie, 13; Brooklyn, 11; and Winnie, 8.
Looking back, it’s something they haven’t regretted for a moment.
“We’ve got lots of time with our kids, and they’re thriving,” Mrs. Yurich says.
Along with their “little outdoor family”—a diverse mix of other like-minded parents and their kids—Mrs. Yurich and her children rotate through their favorite things in the area. One day might include a hike or gathering at a creek to build a fort, or a visit to a farm or nature center.
The great thing about getting outdoors, the mom says, is that “kids are innately fascinated by the waterfall, by the mushroom, by lizards, scorpions, snakes, birds, butterflies, and squirrels. There’s so many things out there that fascinate children, and you can turn that into a little study if you want to.”
Maturing children can get involved in more challenging activities, such as whitewater rafting, if they want to, but self-direction is key.
“In that way, the pressure is off,” she said.
One aspect Mrs. Yurich often gets asked about is the difficulty of living in a city as opposed to a rural setting. To this, she says there are pros and cons to every place, but one important aspect is choosing to live somewhere walkable, with access to parks and green spaces.
Tips for Parents
Mrs. Yurich, who regularly posts about upcoming adventures on her Instagram page, believes today’s parents are having a tough time.“I think it’s really hard to parent in this day and age,” she says. “There’s a lack of support and a whole lot of pressure.”
Mrs. Yurich says she often receives messages and feedback from families using her app. Many times, parents will share that there’s a lot of pressure on them and their children when it comes to academics, and it forces them to “say no to all of the extracurricular activities.” She thinks childhood, nowadays, is more like preparing a child for college.
“There’s a lot of fear there,” she said. “So I think the biggest thing is overcoming the fear.”
Now that their kids are older, the Yurich family tries to get the time outside in “a lot smaller chunks.”
“But we really prioritize it,” Mrs. Yurich said. “So, even if we can go outside for only an hour or only 25 minutes, and we just do a walk around the neighborhood after dinner or something like that, we find that’s really worthwhile. It’s good for our kids to be off of their screen.”
She believes playtime is one of the keys to a successful life, and it can solve a lot of modern-day parenting problems.
“But there’s no money to be made in [kids playing outdoors],” she said. “There’s a lot of money to be made of children who are addicted to screens and who love video games and watching [reels online] all the time, and it’s become a very powerful industry.”
Disconnecting from the digital world and reconnecting with nature is one of the best things you can do for your child, Mrs. Yurich says.
“My advice would be to give it a go with another family or find a friend who’ll go on a small adventure with you, near your home for a couple of hours. Go outside and see how your children react, and feel that relief as a parent,” the mom of five said.
