Grow Wild: The Whole-child, Whole-family, Nature-rich Guide to Moving More

by Katy Bowman

From biomechanist and bestselling author Katy Bowman comes her eagerly anticipated book about getting kids—from babies to preteens—and their families moving more, together, outside.

Human movement is at an all-time low, and our children are currently facing both a movement and nature deficiency, spending more time inside and moving less than any other generation throughout human history.

As adults and kids alike turn more frequently to “convenient” and tech-based solutions, many tasks that once required head-to-toe use of our muscles and bones can be done with a click and a swipe. Without realizing it, we’ve gotten rid of the movement-rich environment our physical, mental, and environmental health depend on…but not our need for it.

The good news is, while the problem feels massive, the solution is quite simple…and fun! Bowman, a leader in the Movement movement, has written Grow Wild to show where movement used to fit into the activities of daily life and more importantly, how it can again.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Health, Nature, How To, Education, Family

314 pages, Paperback

Published May 3, 2021

About the author

Bestselling author, speaker, and a leader of the Movement movement, biomechanist Katy Bowman, M.S. is changing the way we move and think about our need for movement. Her ten books, including the groundbreaking Move Your DNA, have been translated into more than 16 languages worldwide.
Bowman is the creator and host of the "Move Your DNA" podcast, teaches movement globally, and speaks about sedentarism and movement ecology to academic and scientific audiences such as the Ancestral Health Summit and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Her work has been featured in such diverse media as the Today Show, CBC Radio One, the Seattle Times, NPR, the Joe Rogan Experience, and Good Housekeeping.
One of Maria Shriver’s “Architects of Change” and an America Walks “Woman of the Walking Movement,” Bowman consults on educational and living space design to encourage movement-rich habitats. She has worked with companies like Patagonia, Nike, and Google as well as a wide range of non-profits and other communities to create greater access to her “move more, move more body parts, move more for what you need” message.
Her movement education company, Nutritious Movement, is based in Washington State, where she lives with her family.

Reviews

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant! I didn't realize what they book was when I got it from the library. I thought it was simply about getting kids into nature more. But its so much more than that. I learned a LOT about the human body, movement, etc. and have ordered my son new shoes and ditched pillows at night now. I'm a believer!

[Kathryn Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read. So inspiring and so full of concrete and imaginative ideas. I'll go back to it every week of my children's lives for sure.

[Dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Lots and lots to think on from this book! The scope is so comprehensive that I feel free to pick and choose what my kids need most and what will work for our family. (Yes to adding a pull-up bar, eating outside, and plenty of barefoot time. No to getting rid of our couches and chairs.) Bowman’s concept of stacking activities to get multiple benefits is going to be useful in other life areas too. Glad I read this one!

[Aeromama · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining: 8/10
Transformational: 6/10

If you've never encountered Katy Bowman's work about movement, you may have a very high transformational score here.

This is the 6th or 7th book of hers that I've read. It started with me wanting to repair my diastasis recti after baby #3 and has landed me in the camp of toe shoes and sitting on the floor. Her work dovetails a lot of the other ideals our family espouses: community, household life, growing and preparing our own food, activity stacking, and other people and earth-friendly mindsets.

Katy is a biomechanist whose body of work says that most chronic issues with our bodies can be tied to our sedentary culture. Grow Wild is a genre defying FUN book about moving more with your family. It has a lot of images and is a great book for inspiration.

Ask me if you want to hear more about her other books, or visit nutritiousmovement.com.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED this and gobbled it up quicker than I usually do with nonfiction. I discovered the author when she was a guest on my favorite podcast (1000 Hours Outside) and this was the first book of hers that I found available for kindle on my e-library; I have others on hold haha.

This book felt transformational for me. I loved the factual but fun writing style as she presents options for adding movement into a family’s lifestyle, and the research to support WHY we should. I loved how, unlike some sources in the “natural living” space, she does it all in a very nonjudgmental way; she’s extremely opposed to all-or-nothing thinking and just wants you to take the ideas that work for your family and enjoy the benefits. Since reading it I’ve been immediately implementing some of the simpler “movement nutrients” into my life and being quicker to say yes to kid requests that have to do with movement (climbing and running in the house!) or being outside (impromptu picnics!).

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book at a local cidery. It was in the gift shop, so I picked up the book and found it quite interesting. I did not buy it because I’m out of the age of raising kids. In my heyday, I would have purchased it. But I was curious enough to borrow the book from the library.

The author values dynamic movement for kids. She encouraged parents to get rid of furniture to give kids access to the floor. She really does. She got rid of her couch because sitting is bad. It is better to sit on the floor where more movement is required to get on and off the floor and sitting is more active. She also sawed down her table legs so kids and parents could sit at the table on the floor. She also got rid of beds and the family lays on sheepskins that they put on the floor and hang up when not in use so, viola, more floor space!

While I’m not this extreme, I don’t have a coffee table because I value more floor space. I also had to get rid of fragile decorations that inhibit play. I did not believe in the old refrain “No playing in the house.” We live in Washington, so sometimes we were unfortunately stuck in the house. (I do have couches tho. I like to sit on them when I watch TV.) And I also like how in Japan, they pull out their futon beds at night and put it away in the day for more floor space! Ingenious!

I valued play over movement. A place to spread out toys or crafts. I would have totally ate up this book though if I had it 15 years earlier! Not to the point of needing sheepskin beds, but adding dynamic movements to our family goals as well as play, free time and getting outside.

I decided to check out the author and found she is quite the prolific author, and borrowed something interesting for movement in adults.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second reading of Grow Wild. I wrote a review after my initial read, but Goodreads seems to have erased it!

I am child-free by choice, so it is a testimony to my love of Katy Bowman that I have opted to read a book about raising children -- twice!

While the book focuses on getting children to move more, there's so much information applicable to adults. I appreciated the chapter on clothing because I am of the mindset that clothing both protects our bodies and communicates our style.

I've listened to the audiobook, and I've flipped through the physical book -- this is a beautiful book!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the ideas in this book, especially the background behind why children need physical movement to develop lifelong health. It was a great reminder to me to go back to the basics of childhood--let kids play, jump, and move. I loved the ideas for creating space for this (allowing lots of movement inside), why movable clothing matters, the importance of community and nature, and more. I won't be losing my couch, mattress, or pillow 😆 but I liked learning about these things and finding my own balance.

[emyrose8 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written like an essay with inserts/photos from others living out the grow wild principles. It's easy to read; Katy is very conversational. The inserts are sometimes jarring because they interrupt the flow of the writing and you have to go back and remind yourself what you were reading about before.

Definitely makes you think about your lifestyle and how you are nourishing your body/family. I wrote some notes for myself of things I wanted to remember and apply to my family.

[Kaysie Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katy Bowman, a biomechanist, has shared her life’s message in this convicting and motivating book to get more movement in our lives and the lives of children. As a part of the natural world, our needs for movement to procure food used to keep our bodies strong and healthy. In the modern world, we no longer must hunt, forage, or farm for our daily sustenance. From the the way we set up the furniture in our homes, to the way we educate our children, and how we spend our free time starve our muscles from the movement they were designed to do. The result for us and for our children is disease, weakness, and a divorcing of ourselves from the rest of nature. This is a must read for everyone, but especially for people with small children.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gave me so many ideas on how to have a more active life and the importance of movement for our children. So good!!

[Cadi Kiel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good ideas to try to implement!

[Kristen Gebbia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never look at movement the same way again! I never really realized how sedentary our culture is, and how detrimental it is to our health. Now I find myself looking for more ways to add the varied nutritious movement my body needs (just like our bodies need a varied nutritious diet). Which brings us to the idea of "stacking" the things we need (rest, family, play, nature, food, work, community, movement, and learning). Stacking is the idea of doing ONE thing that fulfils as many of these needs as possible (as opposed to multi-tasking, which is trying to do many things as the same time). So taking a walk to pick berries with friends would fulfil several needs: family, nature, food, community, and movement. While the larger focus of the book is on movement, Bowman specifically encourages movement outside in nature, as the natural world has been meeting our movement needs for thousands of years and is still set up to best meet them.

Bowman explores the reasons WHY we have become more sedentary, and what we can do to change those reasons and move more--
*Our culture has grown used to it. In fact, we often encourage less movement in the name of "safety" (think about all the "no climbing" signs, or even all the quarantining we have done during the pandemic). I've found myself discouraging movement in the name of "good behavior"; it's just not culturally acceptable to wiggle at the table, let alone sit on the floor. But as Bowman says, "You don't need a giant shift in the culture to get kids moving more; by changing how you and your family move, you change the movement culture."
*Our clothing often restricts it (think of tight jeans). Or, if the clothes themselves don't restrict us, our rules around them do (not being allowed to play in non-play clothes). We have exercise clothes, but don't make the connection that what isn't exercise-friendly is likely not movement friendly; they're "sedentary clothes". Look for outfits and shoes that move with you, so that you can climb a tree or walk a mile. Bowman also includes tips about good winter and summer wear.
*Our food environment. 200 years ago making a strawberry pie would include thousands of complex movements--from planting and harvesting both wheat and strawberries, to grinding and slicing, gathering firewood and baking.... now we can eat a strawberry pie with as little movement as it takes to swipe our thumb and order a grocery delivery. We don't even have to step outside. Can we reclaim some of that movement for ourselves? Sure, it's "harder" in the short term, but leads to better health and ease overall. Someone is going to do the movements and reap the benefits; might as well be me and my kids. Some ideas for getting more movement into our food environment include: making butter, making salt, chopping wood, gathering eggs, growing sprouts, acorn gathering and flour making, nut picking, fishing, dandelion fritters, and berry picking.
*Our home environment. Our houses are full of places to sit or lay in stillness. Kids often aren't allowed to climb, run, or jump because we value our furniture (or our quiet). While the easy answer is to simply get out in nature more, can we start to morph our homes into places that welcome more movement? Perhaps add door-way pull-up bars, a brachiation ladder, a balance ball, exercise trampoline for jumping, and never underestimate the power of a few open floor spaces. Bowman tells how her family slowly "replaced" furniture with nothing. They do a lot of floor sitting on cushions, which encourages a lot of movement up and down, and they have lowered tables with no chairs, which again requires a lot of movement.
*Our learning environment. "The single thing kids practice the most at school isn't reading or math. It's sitting in a chair". In a classroom, can we advocate for more flexible seating options? As homeschoolers, how can we add more movement to our learning culture?
*Activities. While we are often moving more with these (think swimming), can we figure out a way to get more variation in our movement? While swimming is great for the lungs, it doesn't do much to strengthen bones, so can we add in some jumping afterwards? Remember- health and nutrition is in VARIETY.
*Celebrations. Ideas to get kids (and adults) moving more during celebrations: hold them outside, choose a dynamic activity for the event, and have do more of the making involved in party preparations.

A couple more ideas-- When reading (a sedentary activity), I can do some stretches so my body is still moving. When eating, make sure that what goes into my body isn't going to make me sluggish and discourage movement.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun and inspiring book. Anyone with a kid of any age in their life would probably find some interesting ideas here for helping kids get the movement and community they need to develop well.

[Christina Brandsma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

Bowman offers accessible motivation for moving more and increasing nature time. These are both concepts I'm prioritizing and deep diving into after my year of transcience, outdoor time, and slowing down. Katy challenges a lot of cultural norms in everything from shoes to furniture, but makes it accessible and demonstrates how even small changes are worthwhile.

Things of particular interest, inspiration, or that really made me think:

Ch 5
Shoes - angle of heels in children's shoes vs adult shoes - weight, flat, flexibility, wide toes, etc.

Ch 6
Foodnotlawns.com

Food has never been moved so much at the industrial level and the people eating it have never moved so little...the less we move for what we eat, the less we move altogether

5 hour fire - dark and magical outside time - making your own salt from salt water

Ch 7
Supplement indoor plants with outside exercise time

Infant movements - baby holding villages

Chair weaning - remove chair movements where they are not necessary

We're often trapped by the idea that doing something partially doesn't count, but isn't it good to eat some nourishing meals even if not all of them are, etc.

Ch 10
Metaphorical journeys around birthdays - a mile walk per year of age of a child's life (7 miles at 7th birthday)

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, Katy Bowman really speaks to me! So many things that have felt good to me throughout my life now have some scientific explanation. I don’t like “exercise” or changing into exercise clothing but love to walk anywhere and everywhere I can outside! I liked to “stack” activities as a stay at home mom but didn’t know it was a thing called stacking!

There are fascinating tidbits like the concept of eye movement (our increasingly indoor eyes are not used to adjusting to seeing farther distances) and obvious tidbits like the fact that kids especially crave and need movement but are restricted from doing so frequently.

Lots of good ideas in here for bringing more indoor things outside (why can’t we chop veggies or fold laundry outside?) and more outside things in (windows, nature shelves, climbing or play areas set aside for movement). The last chapter of the book on Alloparenting also struck me. We put so much emphasis on being a good parent to our own child or children, but give far less thought to being a parent or role model to children who are not your own. There are so many more of those kids! What an opportunity!

This gave me a new framework for thinking about nature and movement and I’m happy to begin to learn about Bowman’s extensive work…

[Lacey Parr · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve read any of Katy Bowman’s work or listened to her podcast, a lot of this book will seem redundant. BUT I also think it’s a fantastic culmination of all her work. As a parent and alloparent and fellow human, every page is full of practical guidance and inspiration to get more movement, nature, friendship and family into my day. I recommend it to all my parent friends. From her afterword: “ we can all move more, in a well balanced way, and movement is made more relevant to our lives rather than to merely our health—which is already some thing many have learned to sacrifice in exchange for participating in this type of society. You can move more with kids because you can meet more of everyone’s needs, you can move with them more because you’re interested in the physical and emotional benefits. You can move more with kids because doing so places less burden on other humans, human societies, and the non-human elements of the world. You can move more simply because it’s fun. Whatever your reasons for moving more your movement matters. Our movement matters. Our movement matters to the forest and the trees, the village and villagers. Movement matters do humanities children.”

[Abigail Stacy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Audiobook. I just discovered the category of books that I can listen to without feeling like I'm missing out. It's the "I want to read this and know what it says but I don't need to remember every detail" category. With that being said, there are key parts that I do want to remember.

The topic of the book interests me greatly as both a mom and as someone with an interest in functional movement. While the author's worldview is laughable (evolutionist), the research in this field is intriguing. The book is all about physical movement. Bowman details how our current culture and commodities have shifted towards a more sedentary lifestyle. More and more research is beginning to come out on the affects of this kind of lifestyle on the human body. It's been known that children have great mobility but lose that mobility as they stop exploring movement as they age. This has been even more exaggerated with "baby containers." Bowman offers a way of living to counteract the loss of movement that humans used to have regularly.

This increase in movement that Bowman argues for goes hand in hand with being outside and in nature. Additionally, the idea of "stacking" is a key part of this book. The idea is to "stack" movement along with other activities that you want to do or are already doing. For example, cooking dinner is usually "contained" in the kitchen just standing. But you can do your prep work of cutting outside while you sit, squat, or kneel on the ground.

Each chapter is titled after its "container" that normally keeps people from moving more. The following notes are what I found most helpful from each chapter.

Clothing: Hurray! Finally a "scientific" reason to not wear jeans. They seriously restrict movement. Honestly, this was a fun chapter to listen to because it really did explain how I've thought about clothes since I was a kid. I wore dresses and skirts growing up and I always needed to make sure that they were stretchy and comfortable because I NEEDED to jump over a fence or climb a tree at a moments notice. This chapter put into words what I've had in the back of my head and never consolidated into a clear thought. Give kids comfortable, appropriate clothes that doesn't hinder movement exploration to explore the world around them.

Cooking: We used to move a lot more in order to prepare food. The Lord has been abundantly kind to give us farmers and grocers who provide most of our food. We can increase our gratitude for what the Lord has given us and our enjoyment of the world if we take time to invest in finding, harvesting, or making some of our own food. Along with this, we get to use our bodies in ways we don't normally get to move them.
Fall ideas: mushroom foraging; acorn gathering and flour gathering; nut picking, gathering, and cracking; spice grinding; clamming, oysters, fishing
Winter: tree syrup (you can tap maple or birch trees); maple syrup taffy; Christmas tree tea; rose-hip and crabapple gathering
Spring: Dandelion fritters; Miners lettuce tacos; gathering nettle (for nettle tea and wild pesto)
Summer: Berry picking; Whipping cream; making lemonade (and minty syrup to sweeten it); making root bear; fruit leather, gardening

My main takeaways from this book would be: 1. Kids need a lot more movement than we think for stronger, healthier bodies 2. Be creative in getting your kids to move in different ways (hanging, jumping, crawling, kneeling, bending, etc.) and in different environments (grass, rocks, sand, hills, water, etc) that are not just playgrounds 3. Stacking movement with other things you want to do/are doing will be what contributes to creating a family culture and family memories (moving more helps you experience things longer and more fully).

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I’m with my 3 kids (6&under) *a lot* of the time and it’s clear to see how natural it is for them to MOVE! But a lot of these movements (so much jumping in the house!) seem very awkward in our culture. It’s so helpful to read important info like this which helps me reframe my kids’ activities into typical development and actually super beneficial movement that should be encouraged (or at least, we as parents should know to step back and let this natural play happen). In finishing the book I read a note that encouraged throwing, specifically rocks at trees. Well, today I had my 3 outside at a nature preserve and after a (picnic! on the ground!) lunch, my oldest gravitated toward a huge oak tree. She found lots of sticks on the ground and proceeded to break them into throwable-bits and try to land them in the tree about 10 feet up. The wind was blowing and accuracy was tricky, especially given that the sticks were a variety of lengths and widths. She kept throwing until she got “4 points and won!” It was fascinating to watch and without the little nugget from the book in my head, I might have just herded her toward the car so we could go home.

Ok so a few favorite / memorable quotes from the book:

(1) “Right now, nobody is teaching kids about all the places movement belongs outside of exercise. That’s probably because those kids are growing up in the care of the only group of people ever to have moved less than today’s kids: today’s grown-ups.” -276

(2) “My approach is this one-note song I sing to my kids: everything is better when we go outside together and move. Let your alloparents - the trees, birds, the weather, the tracks - tell you a story, make you a costume, feed you, and fill you up.” -376

(3) “What I love most about moving more in a stacked way is that its beneficial byproducts are also stacked: greater physical resiliency, less consumption, and less waste.”

PS- the book is so beautiful, hundreds of color, candid photos really makes the outdoor lifestyle come to life!

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book, Grow Wild by Katy Bowman, off the new release shelf at the library thinking it would be about getting kids out in nature, but it’s actually about and kids movement (with a good dose of nature thrown in). It was easy to read, and really thought provoking. She talks a lot about the significant increase in sedentary lifestyles over the last 100 years, and the way it limits our bodies. She recommends not thinking of movement/exercise as something you do for an hour three times a week, but as something you can add to what you’re already doing, and increase in your everyday life, ie walking to the library, sitting on the floor, gathering outside with friends, wearing minimalist shoes, avoiding restrictive clothes, etc.

I picked this book, Grow Wild, up at the library thinking it would be about getting kids out in nature, but it’s actually about and kids movement (with a good dose of nature thrown in). It was easy to read, and really thought provoking. She talks a lot about the significant increase in sedentary lifestyles over the last 100 years, and the way it limits our bodies. She recommends not thinking of movement/exercise as something you do for an hour three times a week, but as something you can add to what you’re already doing, and increase in your everyday life, ie walking to the library, sitting on the floor, gathering outside with friends, wearing minimalist shoes, avoiding restrictive clothes, etc. There are a lot of great pictures of kids and families moving together.

While I’m ready to change our couch out for floor cushions, it definitely made me a little more tolerant of the constant movement happening in our house.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katy gives some fantastic tips for getting our kids connected to their bodies and to nature. Today, most families focus on movement as something to do to be “healthy” (think of the amount of parents putting their obviously not athletic kids in soccer and yet drive them 5 blocks to get to school). This is leaving the kids completely unused to using movement in everyday tasks like getting food, building things and getting from place to place. With each generation losing more movement than the one before. Very inspiring book! Some of my favorite parts:

1. flexible clothing - I realize it wasn’t the dresses my mom was making me wear that I hated. It was the fabric and the tights that were so horrible. My kids have soft dresses and can move around freely and have always chosen dresses to wear in the summer. In fact, I would now argue that a comfortable dress is more freeing than a pair of pants that constrict your waist.
2. Flexible, flat shoes
3. Buy the new shoes in November not September.
4. Arm your kid with successful walking attire. A hip pack for carrying their own snacks, a hat, sunglasses with a strap
5. Stacking your life’s needs together as much as possible to get the most fulfilling results. Her example is an outside soup night followed by a group walk-with friends which combines community, nature, movement, family, food and play. Or biking to your friends house for dinner.
6. Movement “diet”- gathering berries, nut cracking, picking flowers, making bracelets.
7. Chop veggies and fruits outside, fold laundry outside- find more reasons to do regular tasks outside.

[Aubree · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe that any source that is teaching should spend about 10% of the time/pages explaining the why and the other 90% explaining how and many teachers and books miss this mark by a lot, spending way too much time explains the why. This book, however, went the other way. I think it’s about 2% why and 98% how and for a text that is trying to convince me to get rid of most of my furniture including beds, it really needs a lot more information on the WHY. I’m definitely not convinced to do something as extreme as get rid of my furniture (although I do not doubt it could be good for us). I am convinced that my family does need more movement in a wide variety of ways- and in ways beyond what I ever would have thought of on my own but I really would have appreciated more research and science.

One of the reasons I read this book was because I heard the author talk on a podcast about the games you could learn about the book for family walks. Then when I (finally!) got to that section all it was was a list of games with the instructions to search for them all on the internet. What?!

This book has A LOT of photos so it’s not as long as it looks and it was nice to have visuals. It has a lot of side bar type inserts that totally interrupt the author sometimes for pages and it was annoying to read.

There are A TON of great ideas on moving more in all aspects of life and so the author really does deliver on that.

[Alyssa Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting from a biomechanical standpoint and I like the author's idea of stacking needs, especially in regard to incorporating more movement. It provided a good overview and some great ideas on varying muscle movement, considering the environment (esp. home environment), combating myopia, and celebrations that include movement. I particularly liked the sections where the author asks the reader to reflect and challenge any biases around movement in particular environments.

My main complaints are around the formatting and design choices of the book. I did not find the photographs to be all that inspiring and the formatting was horrendous. The helpful "sidebars" were not side bars at all but often several pages of text that completely broke up the main paragraph. For example, page 251 cuts off the the middle of a sentence for two pages of "sidebars" for the rest of the sentence to be continued on page 254 (and this is just one instance of many). All of the different fonts, colored boxes, uncolored boxes, and sections should be considered carefully and revised should there ever be another edition of this book.

It was unfortunate that the formatting decisions took so much away from the continuity of the reading experience and added unnecessary frustration. Nevertheless, I did find the content of the book to be thought-provoking!

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed how Katy challenged my understanding of movement as a variety of nutrients the body needs. One type of movement (swimming or running or cycling), no matter how good, is not a well balanced movement diet. This book is very informative and gives some application ideas, but I'm not sure that I would use most of them. For example, I'm not going to go make my own salt or catch and cook crawldads.

She overemphasizes the movement of getting food in the wild vs. buying at the store. When I'm shopping there is still a lot of squatting and lifting, pushing and pulling a heavy cart, carrying groceries to and from the car, putting them away. I don't think foraging in the forest for wild mushrooms is going to be something I'll start doing to add in more movement. But for some it might.

That said, I'm going to consider movement while purchasing clothes and will pursue wool for keeping us warm and dry. I want to sit on the floor more, picnic outside, grow some herbs or plant tomatoes, and get the kids involved more with cooking. Chopping, stirring, and chewing are ALL forms of movement. It makes me so grateful for the wild summers my kids have playing in our mud pit and climbing trees with the neighbor kids. But it also convicts me that there is more I can be doing.

[Katie Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this. It is hands down one of my favorite reads. I make sure to prioritize outdoor time and movement in my children's lives because I know it's important, but after reading this I'll be making adjustments to prioritize movement even more. This book has SOOOO many AMAZING takeaways. I can't recommend it enough. I see so many moms complaining about their children's behavior and I can't help but think so much of it is because we don't let kids be kids anymore. Children are meant to be loud and wild and crazy. Jump and climb. They're not meant to sit at a desk all day or sit in front of a TV for hours and be quiet. I know kids are loud and we're all overstimulated but they have to move, explore their limits, and challenge themselves. It's hard because as a society as we evolve we are less about community and helping one another. Over the last couple years my perspective of so many things has changed, for the better and I can only hope that my children look back years from now and say my Mom was always there for me, supporting me and doing what she felt in her heart was best so we could actually live a childhood most kids will never get to experience in this day and age. Reading this book is going to be a pivotal of my parenting.

[Emily VA · Rating 5 out of 5]

I preordered this a year+ ago, and lost the plot on reading the paper version and finally realized my library had the audio and read it that way. But I’m planning to go back and look at the pictures with my kids.

This is a great book for thinking through all the ways the environments and activities we give our kids can help them grow into the strongest, most flexible, most balanced, and most sustainable versions of themselves (and help us parents and other caregivers get better on all those dimensions at the same time).

A lot of the core ideas will be familiar to those who’ve read Katie’s other books or listened to her podcast or read her blog. But the applications and specific examples of how to give children the opportunity and encouragement to move more in all aspects of their lives is well-done and helpful.

Well narrated by the author on audio, with some funny out-takes at the end.

[Nikki T · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this book might not be as entertaining or insightful for people that aren't currently raising or helping to raise children, it's still filled with with fascinating and thought provoking information.

The thought that particular clothing can literally shape how me move was really interesting. That as well as diapers, healthy self-expression through well-thought-out ornamentation, and many of the community building ideas were really great.

I'm not going to lie though, this book was pretty deep. It's not a light read. It honestly makes me look around and wonder what's going on with the world, which can be kind of uncomfortable.

I highly recommend this book for anyone raising children, participating in a child's life, or wanting to help and grow their community. It really is a well researched book written by someone who clearly cares about the people and world around her. Way to go, Katy Bowman!

[Crista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really inspired me. I’ve always believed in movement and I think we can all agree our culture is largely sedentary. However, Bowman proposes more than just exercise. She offers practical ways to add functional movement, particularly in nature, into daily life. She speaks of stacking, which is defined as meeting multiple needs in a single activity. So, taking a walk outside with a friend satisfies movement, nature, and community needs.

As with any wellness lifestyle, there are dozens of choices you can make that might not fit your life. Personally, I definitely will NOT be trying elimination communication to potty train my child lol. Going furniture-free in my home isn’t likely either. But my family can definitely begin walking more and playing more outside. I definitely recommend to anyone exploring more ideas for getting out of their head and into their body.

[Katrin V · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like what Katy Bowan has to say about how sedentary we have become and how we need to get back to movement. Yes, I appreciate the irony of saying that while seated at my computer. She does a great job in this volume encouraging us to help children move more and illustrates ways that movement can be stacked into other activities. Stacked = added onto other activites we are already doing. I like using an iphone stand so that I am free to stretch or fold laundry when I am on hold for instance. Katy comes up with some suggestions (eat lunch while taking a hike) which I think have some drawbacks, but others are inspiring and encouraging. The chapter on how constrictive children's clothing can be was very good and she had many suggestions for hands on activities outside. Bowman's examples illustrate how inviting others into different movement rich activities bring a lot of shared joy and community which benefit all aspects of us.

[Lauren Beckett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like the idea of seeing movement as a nutrient. I don't think prior to this book that I would ever have prioritised moving in a conscious way for myself. Despite that, I've always felt the importance of moving for my kids: I carried them kids in slings when little and have always put my babies on the floor on their back so they could move. They've grown up wearing barefoot shoes and it makes me feel antsy when I know they've been in a car seat or buggy for more than ten minutes. Having that instinctive feeling backed up and spelled out like this has been incredibly helpful and enlightening. It's encouraged me think of new ways to incorporate and 'stack' more movement into our lives and to prioritise moving for myself as well as the kids. Some lovely dinners outside and in the park are thanks to this book.