By Lisa M. Belisle, MD, MPH
Originally published May 2008, Parent & Family

Last year our family moved to a house that was less than a mile away from our children’s schools. We had previously lived only a little farther up the road. We did this in part because we wanted them to walk to school as often as possible. We wanted them to have the chance to daydream as they meandered down the wooded paths, over the brook and across the fields. We wanted them to see the world up close; to develop a sense of place. We wanted them to engage in an activity that benefited their spirits — and their bodies.

It is important for children to engage in activities that benefit their bodies. We are regularly reminded that our children are embroiled in an epidemic of obesity. Because of this, they face an increased risk of weight-related ailments, such as heart disease and diabetes. As it stands, they also have shorter life expectancies than we do.

The best way to ensure our children enjoy long, healthy lives is to enjoy long, healthy lives ourselves. Although we can tell them what they need to do (eat well, exercise, etc), our message will be much better received if we are modeling the behavior we want them to have. In her book Our Children Are Watching (Barrytown, 1995), Susan Collins points out that words are only 7% of communication: “What we do with our voice is 38%. What we do with our bodies is 55%. Thus 93% of our communication is not what we say, but how we say it.” Clearly, actions speak louder than words.

Knowing that actions speak louder than words, we need to show our children what we want them to do — and do it with them. Gandhi once remarked, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” In the case of our children, our world begins in our homes. So we must literally “walk the walk.”

Walking the walk is not complicated. Here are some tips:

• open your door and take a deep breath,
• settle your child in a stroller, or offer him your hand,
• place one foot in front of the other, until you’re moving down the street.

While walking, look at the trees…wave to the neighbors…chat about your child’s favorite book (see Raising Readers Recommends, below, for books about walking with kids). Then return home, and let him process his full-body adventure.

Why do kids need full-body adventures? This is how they learn. Some kids incorporate information more easily by hearing; others seeing; others by feeling or doing. Walking gives children a chance to do all of these things: listen to a blue jay, look at newly opened lilacs, hug a tree and hold a hand. Simply by strolling around the block.

By walking around the block with your child, you also are helping him understand his world. In Anam Cara (Harper, 1997), John O’Donohue writes “Landscape has a secret and silent memory, a narrative of presence where nothing is ever lost or forgotten.” While winding his way through wooded paths, across brooks and over fields, your child is connecting to the secret and silent memories of the earth.

As your child gets older, you can expand his secret and silent memories to involve landscapes farther afield. Navigate around town using the Left-Right-Forward-Back game (see Resources, below). Stretch yourselves even further by:

• Finding fairy houses on Falmouth’s Governor Baxter Island,
• Escaping to the ocean at Bates-Morse Mountain in Phippsburg,
• Exploring Pineland’s forested trails in New Gloucester, and
• Climbing Pownal’s gentle Bradbury Mountain.

Older children often relish walking-related vacations. Last summer we hiked Katahdin with our freshman son; we took our first- and sixth-grade daughters to amble about Monhegan. Some of our most successful family expeditions were prompted by our dog-eared copy of Best Hikes with Children in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine (Mountaineers, 2000).

This spring, make plans for your own expedition, whether it is ambling around an island or walking around the block. Be the change you wish to see in your children. Benefit their bodies and their spirits: help them walk the walk.

___________________

RESOURCES:

HEALTHY ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN
MaineHealth Learning Resource Centers, 1-866-609-5183

RAISING READERS RECOMMENDS:
Hold My Hand: Five Stories of Love and Family by Charlotte Zolotow (Hyperion, 2003).
 I Went Walking by Sue Williams (Red Wagon Books, 1996).
Thank You Grandpa by Lynne Plourde (Dutton, 2003).

LEFT-RIGHT-FORWARD-BACK
Left-right-forward-back is an entertaining way to take a walk with children, while helping them with the concept of ‘left and right.’ Begin at an intersection. Let your child decide whether to go left, right, forward or back. At the next intersection, you decide. Take turns for the remainder of the walk. Just remember to keep that last choice for yourself—or you may never get home!