Children and autumn sickness: how to treat it with outdoor games

Children and autumn sickness: how to treat it with outdoor games

Autumn is the season of change with its slow flow and its soft- and warm-coloured landscapes.

Autumn is the season of change with its slow flow and its soft- and warm-coloured landscapes.

This season is the bridge between the hot summer and the freezing winter, and it accompanies us with its increasingly shorter days, the crisp air, the first rain and a mist that entices us to stay ever more locked at home.

For kids, autumn is the time to go back to school and to start again with the homework-loaded afternoons and after-school activities, which take the place of the cheerful holidays: strict schedules, rules and tasks turn the free time for games into a small portion of the day, often spent indoors.

During this transitional phase, well 4 out of  5 people seem to suffer from a condition exactly called “autumn sickness”, characterised by symptoms and feelings such as tiredness, apathy, loss of appetite, but nervousness, irritability, and melancholy too.

How to face the “autumn sickness”

In order to help kids to face this delicate phase which is the seasonal change, you just need to use logic and common sense and follow a few simple suggestions, such as:

• regulating the pace and habits of life starting from sleep creating a proper routine both regarding the time to go to sleep and the amount of rest hours;
• paying attention to food by following the fundamentals of the Mediterranean diet;
• slowing down and taking your time to carry out all the activities without overdoing with the risk of stressing the kids too much;
• staying outdoors as long as possible; it is a real cure-all both for the mood and for the immune system.

Nature is a perfect remedy for several disorders, and it has always been considered a true antidepressant without side effects.

This is why you should try to stay outdoors with the kids as long as possible, without worrying too much about autumnal temperatures because the cold air does not make you sick.

On the contrary, spending some time outdoor also in autumn and winter has a long list of benefits for the kids both in terms of health and opportunities for growth and psychophysical development.

A nice quotation by Brian Hoffman says: “Maybe our problems started when we stopped jumping into puddles and took care not to get our feet wet.”

Birthday party in autumn with Il Faro Blu

If your kid’s birthday falls in autumn, just know that organising an outdoor party with Il Faro Blu offers many opportunities, starting from the beautiful location that nature offers. You only need leaves, pine cones, acorns and twigs to obtain a wonderful result and make your kid happy.

There are many activities among which you can choose, in order to involve the kids and organise an unforgettable birthday party in autumn. In addition, these activities allow you to spend some pleasant hours outdoors and to fully enjoy the lukewarm autumnal days in complete harmony in the nature.

You can:

1. go for a walk in the woods or go on a bike ride;
2. pick up the fallen leaves, pine cones, acorns and twigs;
3. collect chestnuts and cook them all together or bake a lovely birthday cake;
4. use the picked up leaves to paint, create collages or write a nice birthday inscription;
5. eat the persimmons of the tree, picked by the adults if the kids are too young;
6. collect twigs and firewood and enjoy all together a tasty hot chocolate with biscuits;
7. build a winter feeder for birds;
8. spend an afternoon in a teaching farm.

Each occasion is a fantastic opportunity to spend some time with our kids, and autumn, with its warm colours and slow flow, is a special moment to experience some hours outdoor all together!

 

Translated by Ilaria Bizzotto and Riccardo Cigna

Reviewed by prof. Robert Clarke