This episode of the Outside Podcast is brought to you by the North Face and its new Apex Flex GTX.

Gorex jacket so soft, dry and comfortable, it might actually change the way you think about the rain.

Here in the podcast, we're looking at people who

see rain differently than most. Today it's kids, specifically kids playing in

rain puddles. Now most of us look at a puddle and just see

innocent fun but if you talk to a developmental psychologist, a puddle is a completely new experience

for kids. It's glossy and glassy and wet and it reacts to whatever you're doing. So a puddle is a really exciting thing.

That's Dr. Cilantan, a professor at Kalamazoo

College in Michigan.

She describes kids as little explorers

and says puddles are like Tara incognita.

Within a puddle, she says, you have a chance to try and figure out how the world works.

So you put your finger in it, you cause ripples, you splash around your hands and it causes the water

to move.

So they're figuring out laws of physics, they're figuring out cause and effect. They're figuring out things about how materials act in the world.

But kids aren't just learning from the puddles. They're also learning from adults.

And there are two basic messages you can send.

Puddles are fun, or if you're afraid to get wet,

puddles are scary.

Dr. Tan says you can actually learn a lot about the adults in a kid's life by watching the kid interact with a puddle.

Yes, puddles are not trivial things.

So I just got to ask, do you play in puddles, or are you too afraid of getting wet?

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