46 episodes

Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families! This is a podcast that inspires and empowers families to spend more time playing and exploring outside. Whether in your own backyard or on a grand adventure, I hope this podcast motivates you to reconnect with the natural world.

Tune in for a new episode every Monday, and on Wednesdays for a new outdoor play invitation to listen to with your kids. See you outside!

Happy Outdoor Families Emily Isenbarger

    • Kids & Family
    • 5.0 • 22 Ratings

Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families! This is a podcast that inspires and empowers families to spend more time playing and exploring outside. Whether in your own backyard or on a grand adventure, I hope this podcast motivates you to reconnect with the natural world.

Tune in for a new episode every Monday, and on Wednesdays for a new outdoor play invitation to listen to with your kids. See you outside!

    46. Life at Camp - with Audrey Withycombe

    46. Life at Camp - with Audrey Withycombe

    Audrey Withycombe is a wife, mother of two, and former teacher. Audrey is passionate about seeking adventures from mountain biking to exploring hot springs. She and her family have made it a whole lifestyle as they currently live full time at a summer camp in Minnesota. When Audrey isn’t out adventuring with her family, she is blogging and podcasting about being an outdoorsy family. I was so happy to be able to sit down and talk with Audrey about life at camp, and the joy of being outdoors!



    You can find Audrey's blog and podcast at outdoorsyfamilies.com and follow her over on instagram @outdoorsy.families





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    • 33 min
    45. Recess Advocacy - with Summer Belloni

    45. Recess Advocacy - with Summer Belloni

    Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families, the podcast that encourages and equips families to spend more time exploring and playing together outside. Today I'm excited to talk all about recess advocacy, and Summer Belloni is the perfect person for this conversation! As a credentialed teacher, she has experience teaching in both public and private schools. On the parenting side, when her own children entered school, Summer served on a district level student health advisory council where she began to really understand the importance of recess. She began to advocate locally for district policy, and went on to start Texans for Recess, an organization that advocates for recess policy on the state level. Continuing her passion for school and learning, summer is currently finishing coursework and assessments for her preliminary administrative credential and a master’s degree in education focusing on administrative leadership. Her current research focuses on teacher perception of recess, and Summer also serves on the board of the International Play Association, USA as their recess chair. Most importantly, she is raising two children who love to play outside as much as possible. I am excited for you to hear more of Summer’s story and her wisdom on recess advocacy.



    Some resources mentioned in the show and places for further learning:

    The LIINK project: https://liinkproject.tcu.edu/

    IPA USA: https://ipausa.org/

    Texans for Recess group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1879894452038819









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    • 46 min
    44. Hidden Senses (Part 2) - The Proprioceptive Sense

    44. Hidden Senses (Part 2) - The Proprioceptive Sense

    Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families, the podcast that encourages and equips families to spend more time exploring and playing together outside. I am your host, Emily Isenbarger, and I hope that as you listen in each week you will feel inspired and excited about reconnecting your kids, and yourselves, with the outdoors - whatever that looks like for you. Join with me as we dive into the beauty, the benefits, and the challenges of taking life outside. Thanks for listening!



    This week we are talking about another "hidden" sense, our proprioceptive sense. Our proprioceptive sense allows us to know where our limbs and other body parts are, and to judge the force and speed of our movements. Listen in to hear more about how this sense is developed and how we can make sure kids aren't missing out on the sensory input that they need to keep it strong. 



    In the episode, I reference Angela Hanscom's book, Balanced and Barefoot, which you can find here: 

    https://bookshop.org/books/balanced-and-barefoot-how-unrestricted-outdoor-play-makes-for-strong-confident-and-capable-children/9781626253735



    Here are a few follow up articles as well:

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780080450469019070

    https://tinkergarten.com/blog/what-is-our-sixth-sense-and-how-does-it-affect-our-kids

    https://www.stack.com/a/the-real-reason-schools-are-banning-tag-and-why-it-should-be-a-wake-up-call-for-parents/



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    • 18 min
    43. Hidden Senses (Part 1) - The Vestibular System

    43. Hidden Senses (Part 1) - The Vestibular System

    Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families, the podcast that encourages and equips families to spend more time exploring and playing together outside. I am your host, Emily Isenbarger, and I hope that as you listen in each week you will feel inspired and excited about reconnecting your kids, and yourselves, with the outdoors - whatever that looks like for you. Join with me as we dive into the beauty, the benefits, and the challenges of taking life outside. Thanks for listening!



    This week we are talking about one of the "hidden sense" that we all possess - our vestibular sense. This is the sense that allows us to sense where our bodies are in space and contributes to our ability to balance and move through our world with ease. Listen in to find out more about why this sense is so vital and what is has to do with getting outside!



    Some of the articles and books that I mention in the show are linked below:

    1. What is the Vestibular Sense? - https://pathways.org/what-is-the-vestibular-sense/

    2. The Shocking Phenomenon That Shows Just How Movement-Starved Modern Kids Really Are - https://www.stack.com/a/the-shocking-phenomenon-that-shows-just-how-movement-starved-modern-kids-really-are/

    3. Balanced and Barefoot by Angela Hanscom - https://bookshop.org/books/balanced-and-barefoot-how-unrestricted-outdoor-play-makes-for-strong-confident-and-capable-children/9781626253735





    Acoustic/Folk Instrumental by Hyde - Free Instrumentals https://soundcloud.com/davidhydemusic​Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0  Free Download / Stream:  https://bit.ly/acoustic-folk-instrume...​Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/YKdXVnaHfo8

    • 19 min
    42. Favorite FALL books

    42. Favorite FALL books

    Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families, the podcast that encourages and equips families to spend more time exploring and playing together outside. I am your host, Emily Isenbarger, and I hope that as you listen in each week you will feel inspired and excited about reconnecting your kids, and yourselves, with the outdoors - whatever that looks like for you. Join with me as we dive into the beauty, the benefits, and the challenges of taking life outside. Thanks for listening!



    This week I am sharing some of my FAVORITE fall-themed picture books. Whether your children are young or old, these are beautiful books that are so fun to cuddle up with on a cool fall day. I hope you find a new favorite! All of the books that I talk about in this episode are listed below:



    1. Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn - Kenard Pak

    2. Hiking Day - Ann Rockwell, illustrated by Lizzy Rockwell

    3. Ox-Cart Man - Donald Hall, illustrated by Barbara Cooney

    4. Pumpkin Jack - Will Hubbell

    5. The Pumpkin Book - Gail Gibbons

    6. By the Light of the Harvest Moon - Harriet Ziefert, illustrated by Mark Jones

    7. Hello, Harvest Moon - Ralph Fletcher, illustrated by Kate Kesler

    8. Scarecrow - Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Lauren Stringer

    9. Johnny Appleseed - Poem by Reeve Lindbergh, illustrated by Kathy Jakobsen

    10. Hungry Bunny - Claudia Rueda

    11. Leaf Man - Lois Ehlert

    12. Fall Walk - Virginia Brimhall Snow

    13. In November - Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Jill Kastner

    14. Winter is Coming - Tony Johnston, illustrated by Jim LaMarche







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    • 21 min
    41. Our (Outdoor) Homeschool Routine

    41. Our (Outdoor) Homeschool Routine

    Welcome to Happy Outdoor Families, the podcast that encourages and equips families to spend more time exploring and playing together outside. I am your host, Emily Isenbarger, and I hope that as you listen in each week you will feel inspired and excited about reconnecting your kids, and yourselves, with the outdoors - whatever that looks like for you. Join with me as we dive into the beauty, the benefits, and the challenges of taking life outside. Thanks for listening!

    I am so excited to be back with you and today we are talking about prioritizing the outdoors in our homeschool routine. I absolutely love free, unstructured time outside. But there are also a number of activities that we plan and carry out more intentionally and find a lot of value in those things too. Today i’m sharing three ways that we incorporate the outdoors into our homeschool and preschool learning - through weekly nature groups, Tinkergarten classes, and through simply taking our lessons into the backyard or park. These also happen to be my favorite parts of homeschooling and i hope that these ideas can bring some joy to your home as well.



    My Tinkergarten page: https://www.tinkergarten.com/leaders/emily.isenbarger?&tga=2b2a57b86ac0

    My FAVORITE bins for homeschool supplies: https://www.michaels.com/14.5qt-latchmate-plus-mint-storage-box-with-tray-by-simply-tidy/10467879.html?r=g&cm_mmc=PLASearch-_-google-_-MICH_Shopping_US_N_Papercraft_N_Smart_BOPIS_N-_-&Kenshoo_ida=&kpid=go_cmp-9972406487_adg-102401876362_ad-433378147614_pla-1408204284127_dev-c_ext-_prd-10467879&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm9yJBhDTARIsABKIcGa-H13J_Z4TlmWkWwpmCkiBzqjq2VyaLCd0fAstG1B6ZX7mf_5o9OQaAhYuEALw_wcB





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    • 24 min

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5
22 Ratings

22 Ratings

MaineBinz ,

Great Content for Outdoor Minded Moms

I love the outdoors and spend a lot of time with it with my kids. I’m finding this show both validating and inspiring. I especially liked the ones with science minded guests like Dr Izenstark on her research on Outdoor affect on families and Dr Mather about ticks.

popsdiddy ,

Fred Rogers 2.0!

This is a wonderfully engaging podcast about the benefits of outdoor adventure with your children. Emily is very persuasive in her explanation of why we should seek these opportunities with our little ones. She also gives excellent examples of how this can be accomplished. But she sets herself apart by the weekly guided play sessions with the children. I have been struck over and over by the kind and respectful tone in which she addresses them. The comparison that comes to mind is Fred Rogers! If you value that kind of influence in your child’s life, you will not be disappointed.

LL12344 ,

Great Podcast

This is my new favorite parenting podcast! Emily makes spending time outdoors with your family so accessible and fun. I have already learned a lot and feel inspired to take my kids outside more often. And I just packed my “in case of adventure” bins in my car. Looking forward to more episodes!

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