Day Hiking Trails: Reason to hike No. 21 with kids: Improved concentration

Friday, August 2, 2013

Reason to hike No. 21 with kids: Improved concentration

Getting outdoors in green areas improves
the ability to concentrate.

If video games and 100-mile-an-hour imagery on the television screen is wrecking your child’s ability to concentrate, battle back with a good old fashioned hike.

A recent study of elderly patients in nursing homes found that those who visited garden areas for an hour enjoyed better concentration than those who rested indoors in their favorite rooms (read the paper). This occurs because green recreational environmental reduces brain fatigue in individuals.

The upshot? Getting kids (and yourself!) outdoors best refreshes your brain, and could result in all the benefits of better concentration (such as improved test scores).

Read more about day hiking with children in my Hikes with Tykes guidebooks.

Meet the Author

My name is Rob Bignell. I'm a long-time hiker, journalist and editor. My son Kieran and I have been hiking together for the past decade. Before Kieran, I taught middle school students in New Mexico and Wisconsin, served as an infantryman in the Army National Guard, and worked in newspapers. I've won several journalism awards, from editorial writing to sports reporting. In 2001, The Prescott Journal, which I served as managing editor of, was named Wisconsin’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year. Currently I own and operate an online editing business, Inventing Reality Editing Service. After spending several years in Southern California, my son and I now live in Wisconsin on the scenic Red Cedar River.