What's Right With Outdoor Play
There's nothing better then watching your kids find their own adventures in your own backyard, park, neighborhood, or around the world - nothing except maybe being that kid.
But it's not just the trill of the chase - playing outdoors has real benefits:
Playing outdoors benefits a child physically:
- Encourages fitness
- Builds the immune system
- Allows multiple opportunities to develop flexibility, balance, and coordination
- Builds muscle strength
- Provides Vitamin D from the sun
- Improves distance vision
- Improves fine and gross motor skills
Playing outdoors benefits a child emotionally:
- Calms and Reduces stress
- Helps develop self-confidence
- Promotes social skills
- Promotes problem solving skills
- Restores and nourishes
- Protects emotional development
- Encourages self-pacing
Playing outdoors benefits a child mentally:
- Increases attention span
- Helps grow cognitive ability
- Stimulates the imagination
- Teaches impulse control and gratification delay
- Heightens learning
(Read more here here here here or here... or just google it, it's everywhere - nature and outdoor play rocks!)
So armed with the knowledge that outdoor play really is all that... what can you do to help your kids get outdoors more? We'll be back with lots of ideas - but for now leave us a comment and tell us: what is your family's favorite outdoor activity?