Hi Parents and Carers!

At It Takes 7  we encourage you to use a cost-free,‘nature can nurture’ approach for enhancing your children’s health and wellbeing. Sometimes answering your children’s questions or concerns about their own health can perhaps best be managed by focusing on 7 things we can do. 

Attitude is the ANSWER (Air, Nutrition, Sunshine, Water, Exercise, Rest). Let’s teach our children and remind ourselves of these 7 pillars for health and wellbeing. 

Attitude: Let’s co-operate, keep busy, keep learning and try to help others as best we can. 

Air:  Spend time outdoors and breathe deeply. Take your family for nature walks and as you walk, breath in for 4 steps and breathe out for 6 steps. Do this four times. If you are feeling lost, confused or anxious, take 3 deeps breaths. 

Nutrition: Eat fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Take time as you eat together as a family. Start with a reflection. Express thanks for the food you are about to eat. Engage your senses when you eat and chew your food slowly. Talk about how you are going to use this wonderful new life-giving energy. Think about ways you can help others.

Sunshine: Take some time outdoors to simply enjoy sunshine. Where you live will determine things like ‘how long’, ‘what time of the day’ and ‘how much you should cover up’ for this activity. If you visit the Cancer Council of Australia they can direct you to your state’s website for more information.  

Water: Drink, wash and play! These are the three main ways we use water in our households. Water is needed for hydration, hygiene and recreation. Our bodies are over 60% water so we need to drink lots of it! A general guide is 8 cups or 1 1/2 litres for adults, 6-8 cups for children (less for those under school age). You need to drink more water when temperatures are high, if you are exercising or if you are working in air-conditioned or heated rooms. All over the world the precious value of water is celebrated and invested in by governments. Read more… 

Exercise: Exercise strengthens your heart, bones and muscles. Exercise gives you more energy, helps digestion and elevates moods. Pretty motivating information! And there are so many choices of ways you can get moving! Try brainstorming with your family and come up with ideas for how you can use your resources, your location and the time you have available to be physically active. Children usually have loads of ideas. A number of students I know created their own exercise circuits in the backyard.

Rest: Brahms’ lullaby is a well-known piece of music used for calming the mind in preparation for sleep. Powerful benefits of sleep include: reduced stress and inflammation in the body, improved memory, increased capacity to learn and enhanced emotional stability. Adults require around 6-8 hours each night. School-age children and adolescents do best with 10-12 hours sleep. Catnapping, mindful meditations, hobbies, playing with pets and nature walks are additional great ways to quickly recharge your whole body. Who knew ‘rest’ was about more than just sleep?! 

Activities

Now that you are familiar with the It Takes 7 approach, why don’t you take some photos of your family engaging in these 7 healthcare practices.

You can also make your own Managing my Emotions health poster by adding your own family photos. The aim is to lay down sensible, lifelong healthcare habits in the hearts and minds of your children. 

If you are homeschooling your children please take advantage of our student activities. 

So many have found It Takes 7 an easy, practical tool for inspiring the whole family to use nature to nurture. We hope you do too.

Take care … and take care naturally!

MORE TIPS

• Learn It Takes 7 ABC of health and wellbeing
• Become familiar with the information on this website so you can answer your children’s questions about health.
• Take photos of your family engaging in It Takes 7 essential healthcare practices.
• Create a poster to go on your fridge as a reminder to the whole family of how important it is to engage daily in these 7 essential healthcare practices.