Swallows and Amazons is a well-known children’s book series written by Arthur Ransome and also a film from the 1970s. It beautifully depicted the joys and the innocence of children and their adventures in the great outdoors. All of Ransome’s books portray the outdoor life and the fun that children can have building dens, catching fish and camping out in nature. It something that seem a far cry from life today where many children prefer to spend their time indoors, watching the television or playing on one of the many games consoles that are available to buy. In some cases, it is as if children have lost all connection with their outside environment. Children are also growing up quicker today, partly due to the face pace of life we have as a society. Many parents are having converstaions about safe sex and the existence of STI test London comapnies such as www.checkurself.org.uk/plus/home_sti_kits/ and what they do and why, much earlier than parents would have done in the past.
Now back to Swallows and Amazons …
The story follows the summer adventures of a group of children – brothers and sisters as they create their own tale of adventure and piracy on the great lakes of the Lake District. The children are already well acquainted with using nautical equipment. The children meet two girls who join in with their fun as they all join the quest to be the group that captures the boats and campsite for themselves. Add into the mix a grumpy man who has forgotten what life as a child was like and his canal boat and you have the recipe for an amazing adventure. Watching the film now it is clear to see that we have lost something of that way of life and of being able to create our own entertainment from a few twigs and leaves.
There have been some staggering facts about our children in today’s society and their lack of experiencing the outdoors:
It is thought that on average children only spend an hour a day during the week enjoying the outdoors and for some children this is just the time that they spend at play during their lunch break at school. Surprisingly, it is also thought that children only spend around 5 hours in total outdoors on the weekends with some preferring to stay indoors to play on their computers or are spending vast amounts of time completing their school homework. Some of this is due to the fact that parents are working more and more hours to make ends meet each month and allowing your children to play outside on their own is not deemed to be anywhere near as safe as it used to be.
