Created by Yihan Dong, a multidisciplinary designer, Greenlody (a portmanteau formed by Green + Melody) is a modular device to let children capture the temperature, color, and sound of nature. After that, these devices can translate them into unexpected musical experiences. Greenlody toy even aims at improving the well-being of kids by letting them explore nature around them.
Greenlody: A toy for kids wellbeing
Today, kids spend much more time inside, due to technology. An average American kid spends around 4 to 7 minutes per day playing outside. And, they spend more than 7 hours per day in front of a smartphone, tablet screen and with gadgets.
Due to this, children’s time spent outdoors has been reduced by 90% in the last 30 years. Therefore, today’s kids need to find a balance between the digital and the physical world.
Therefore, to enhance their wellbeing, Greenlody toy — a set of modular products — lets kids turn natural resources into music. They can have fun creating music with this unique wellbeing toy while interacting with weather, flowers, or animals.
Kids can even record, upload, and edit music made by nature to understand its ecosystem. This is how it encourages children to explore nature in intangible and tangible ways.
A toy for reducing screen time of kids
Using such interesting toys, kids can understand the importance of spending time outdoors. According to researchers, kids who spend more time outdoors are happier. They are even more attentive and less anxious than kids who remain indoors.
Being outdoors also teaches kids a sense of responsibility. For instance, if they are playing with flowers and turning them into music. The kids become aware that they also need to take care of the delicate flowers around them. This is how they learn to take care of things.
Being outside also gets them moving. No matter what they do, more exercise gets involved when they are outside than just sitting on a couch. Moving their bodies is not only good physically, but mentally as well.
Although we are not sure when this product will be available in the market for kids, it’s indeed a great initiative to help the next gen kids to stay connected with nature. We hope that more designers come up with innovative and creative designs and solutions to improve the well-being of today’s kids.
