{"id":114,"date":"2022-01-19T07:24:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-19T07:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/we-wanted-to-go-back-to-basics-how-two-families-reconnected-with-nature-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"modified":"2022-01-20T10:07:35","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T10:07:35","slug":"now-that-science-has-defanged-covid-its-time-to-get-on-with-our-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/now-that-science-has-defanged-covid-its-time-to-get-on-with-our-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Now that science has defanged Covid, it\u2019s time to get on with our lives"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jennifer Chilton and Graeme Thirde were looking at nurseries for their eldest daughter, Imogen, they quickly realised that the traditional approach to early education wasn\u2019t for them. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want her to be stuck indoors all the time,\u201d says Chilton, an IT consultant from London.<\/p>\n

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We wanted her to be able to run around outside and climb and develop confidence in her body and the way it interacts with her surroundings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Come Back To Nature<\/h3>\n

Finding a nursery called Little Forest Folk, which encourages children to learn by immersing themselves in the outdoors, was the first step on a path to the family reconnecting with the natural world on a more meaningful level.<\/p>\n

Imogen, now seven, and her sister Florence, six, have continued their outdoor education at an independent primary school set in three acres of beautiful National Trust grounds. \u201cWe wanted to go back to basics with the way we raise the girls,\u201d says Chilton. \u201cWhen we were growing up we were always outdoors, but most children today no longer have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For all four family members, this desire to live closer to nature is reflected in their choice of footwear. \u201cWe all wear Vivobarefoot shoes and absolutely love them,\u201d says Thirde, who spent nine years in the army before retraining as a garden designer. \u201cWhen you\u2019re wearing them, you\u2019re experiencing a connection with the ground the way we were intended to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cVivos feel like she\u2019s slipping her foot into a sock; there\u2019s no pressure on her toes, or seams inside. She absolutely loves them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond that, knowing their daughters\u2019 feet aren\u2019t being constrained by their shoes as they run, climb and play amid trees, fields and wildlife at the school they attend fits in with Chilton and Thirde\u2019s philosophy of how they want their daughters to grow up.<\/p>\n

Find Happiness on Your Own with The Ones You Love<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe want the girls to have the stress-relieving benefits of being in nature, and Vivos fit perfectly with that,\u201d says Chilton.<\/p>\n

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When they wear their shoes, I know they\u2019re using their feet properly. And they can barely feel the shoes, which helps them really lose themselves in their environment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Giles Hutchins, his wife Star and daughters Lilly-Belle and Hazel are another family dedicated to living in harmony with the natural world. For the past two years, they have lived in 60 acres of ancient woodland in West Sussex, with chickens and a vegetable plot.<\/p>\n

The woodland is where Hutchins, an author, strategist and coach, runs his business, The Future Fit Leadership Academy, taking leaders through transformative experiences in nature to help them transform their companies into \u201cregenerative, life-affirming\u201d organisations.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe go off into the woods and I encourage them to notice the details of nature \u2013 the trees, the birdsong, the smell,\u201d he says. \u201cBy the time we reach the main area, where they sit and talk and listen, they\u2019re in a different space mentally, which they usually find means they have a clearer awareness of their fears, and personal and organisational challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before he tried his first pair of Vivobarefoot shoes, Hutchins says he\u2019d never considered the impact of traditional shoes on our feet. But once he did, the revelation was instant. \u201cI realised that we\u2019ve been lessening our connection with nature all this time, as well as deforming our feet and those of our children,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Jennifer Chilton and Graeme Thirde were looking at nurseries for their eldest daughter, Imogen, they quickly realised that the traditional approach to early education wasn\u2019t for them. \u201cWe didn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5,6,3,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soledaddemo.pencidesign.net\/soledad-the-graph-newspaper\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}