1KHO 640: Children Improve Their Attention Spans Outside | Angela Hanscom, TimberNook

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Kids & Family, Parenting

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 December 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When pediatric occupational therapist and TimberNook founder Angela Hanscom steps into the woods, she sees what most of us miss: children rebuilding the very systems in their brains that make attention possible. In this deeply hopeful conversation, Angela explains why daily outdoor play isn’t just “good for kids”—it’s biologically essential. From spinning and hanging upside down to tumbling down hills, nature gives children the movement their vestibular system craves, activating the brain’s built-in attention network and counteracting the effects of our screen-heavy world. Schools partnering with TimberNook are reporting calmer classrooms, fewer behavior challenges, and even more academic risk-taking as children spend long, unstructured stretches in nature. But this episode goes beyond brain science. Angela and Ginny explore the social, emotional, and leadership skills that develop when adults step back and let the woods take the lead. You’ll hear powerful stories of children negotiating conflicts, comforting friends, forming “clans,” navigating risk, and discovering capability without adults micromanaging every move. It’s a reminder that the richness of what happens in the woods grows more than attention spans; it grows confidence, resilience, empathy, creativity, and identity. If you need encouragement, inspiration, or simply permission to let go a little, this conversation will shift how you see childhood and how you support it. Get your copy of Balanced and Barefoot here Please support our advertising partners who help keep the show going! Wayfair: Get organized, refreshed, and back to routine for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. SelectQuote: Get the RIGHT life insurance for YOUR FAMILY, for LESS, at selectquote.com/1000hours BetterHelp: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/1000HOURS. Quince: Go to Quince.com/outside for free shipping on your order and three hundred and sixty-five -day returns. NIV Application Bible: Find out more at NIVapplicationbible.com. Omaha Steaks: Visit OmahaSteaks.com for 50% off sitewide during their Sizzle All the Way Sale. And for an extra $35 off, usepromo code FUN at checkout. Mercy Ships: Please donate today at MercyShips.org/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why are businesses like HelloVet choosing Apple products and services?
0:05.0	So we started the business two years ago.
0:07.0	We had a few people who were used to PCs and this was their first foray into Macs.
0:12.0	But it's been super smooth getting everyone onto those devices and everyone seems really, really happy.
0:18.0	Find out how Mac can help you run and grow your business at apple.com forward slash hello vet.
0:26.5	Welcome, welcome, welcome to the 1,000 hours outside podcast.
0:29.5	My name is Jenny Ehridge and the founder of 1,000 hours outside and I am so honored.
0:33.0	Do you know I never even thought this would happen for one time ever, but Angela Hanskin is back for time number six. Welcome.
0:40.4	Thank you for having me.
0:41.7	In my last conversation, I was talking about books.
0:44.3	I talked to a mom.
0:44.9	She had a two-year-old and a two-year-old and a six-week-old.
0:48.1	And I was like, here's my list of six books or seven books that every young parent should reach or that you really have a good sense of what you're doing.
0:52.0	And balanced and barefoot is always in my top three of books.
0:55.1	It's balanced and Barefoot is always in my top three of books. It's Balanced and Barefoot, free to Learn, and Simplicity Parenting. If people could read those three books, it would completely change your entire family experience. So I'm so honored, Balanced and Barefoot, just changed my life and you have this incredible program called Timber Nook. Just give us a little update of what's going on. There's
0:57.6	new Timberook, new Timber Noc locations that have popped up recently. Where are things out?
1:14.4	Yeah. So we are we just launched one in Colorado. And then we also started two new schools, St. Francis of Assisi school and then
1:20.4	Seton Academy where my son goes, which is super exciting. You know, they've been doing field trips
1:32.4	for Timurik for many years. So it was nice for them to have Tamerick in their backwoods.
1:38.5	Yeah, so exciting. And there's one in Hawaii. Oh, yes. Yep. And last year, there
1:44.0	was a new one in Jackson, so we got to meet in person at this new Timbernook, Jackson,
1:48.8	Michigan that started here that's not that far from my house and with Cassie Butters. And it
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