The need of the hour: Outdoor activities for children

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks” John Muir

During our childhood, we as kids playing outside was a normal phenomenon. Indulging in outdoor sports or going for a normal walk with parents every evening to the nearby park with our mom and dad was always looked forward to.

The line between our work life and personal life has been blurred tremendously over the last decade or so. Likewise, our children live has also been clouded covered under the roof

From playing on phones to watching television to indoor activities, children seem to be spending more and more time indoors and safe environments with poor adaptation towards mother earth! There’s no denying what the statistics show: Today’s kids are swapping actively; they are digitally much more aware than offline tasks whether its a game cartoons or active on WhatsApp status !hahaha, outdoor play for a more sedentary lifestyle that is having serious consequences for their health and overall well-being.

Nowadays most of us are working parents, we don’t have the practice to play with our children or to follow the ritual of park activity as we enjoyed in our childhood

The digital market has made an option for the parents to make them busy with something while they finish other things

Research shows us that many of the fundamental tasks that children must achieve, such as, exploring, risk-taking, fine and gross motor development and the absorption of vast amounts of basic knowledge, can be most effectively learned through outdoor play 1

For example, when children move over, under, through, beside, and near objects and others, the child better grasps the meaning of these prepositions and geometry concepts. When children are given the opportunity to physically demonstrate action words as stomp, pounce, stalk or slither, or descriptive words such as smooth, strong, gentle, or enormous, word comprehension are immediate and long-lasting.

Can you imagine sometimes developmental reflexes are not aged appropriately for some toddlers, but by making them explore the different types of activities for indoor as well as outdoor children will understand and adapt to the environment!

“They grow by learning, exploring, experimenting not by leaning on the bed”

Children with special needs parents need to be extraordinary in terms of learning as it's important to make them learn from stimuli and to respond!

Outdoor active play can be intensely stimulating and creates opportunities for children to learn about and develop self-control.

Research has shown that popular children are more likely to engage in high levels of physical play with peers. Unpopular children, on the other hand, seem to experience difficulty with the intensity of physical play and often become overstimulated and "out-of-control".

Social deprivation, depression, poor cognitive, and perceptual abilities are declining day by day as children are not being exposed to the environment at the right age when the age goes. The problem and difficulties start arousing.

Getting children outside more benefits the children not only physically, but also allows the brain to recharge which, should produce greater results academically, socially, and cognitively.2

According to research, there is one consistent observation that stands out among the studies of energy expenditures in young children: those under the age of 7 seem to expend about 20 to 30 percent less energy in physical activity than the level recommended by the World Health Organization. The Children’s Activity and Movement in Preschools Study (CHAMPS) determined that children enrolled in preschools took part in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during only 3.4 percent of the preschool day. Getting children outside more benefits the children not only physically, but also allows the brain to recharge which, should produce greater results academically, socially, and cognitively. 3

Outdoor Play helps to an Infant in the following ways

  • Familiar to outdoor noises around them such as cars, airplanes, and other children at play
  • Experience different weather patterns such as hot, cold, wind, sun, rain
  • Stimulate their eyes by observing different colors and objects that are shiny, bright or dull, observe and analyze
  • Stimulate smells of all varieties
  • Adjust their eyes to the various intensities of sunlight
  • Crawl, hop and run on and touch both rough and smooth textures such as grass, sand, concrete, leaves
  • Grasp items such as sand and leaves using fine motor skills Inhale fresh air to decrease the risk for germs
  • The child try to adjust with the environment with a possible way he can
  • Creativity: Indulging in outdoor games can inspire a kid’s creativity. Being in the open natural surroundings can stimulate a child’s imagination and may stir up a lot of artistic and inventive ideas in him.
  • Attain motor skills: Engaging in outdoor games can help kids develop their gross and fine motor skills. They achieve better agility, coordination, and balance
  • Social relationships: as we learned sharing is caring but we forget to implicit the skills into practical life at infant age, the child should with his own age at the same age of the child and help them to learn Outdoor play often requires imagination and teamwork, which helps children have positive interactions with each other. That doesn’t mean there won’t be arguments over whose turn it is to go down the slide or shoot a basket, but, in general, kids who consistently play outdoors are more likely to get along with their peers and find common ground. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that soaking up all that sunshine improves their moods as well. It’s harder to be angry at someone when you’re in a good mood!
  • Improve communication skills When they’re on the playground or at a park, kids have so many opportunities to meet other children and cultivate friendships with them. They meet people who are different from they are and develop the skills they need to play successfully with many different children.
  • Gain spatial awareness (a foundational geometry concept) as they move their bodies through space in different ways and at different speeds, and observe the world from different perspectives
  • Waiting concept : The child will learn patience, wait for his turn , more organization skills can be expected sometimes parents complain that their child cannot wait for the turn he is always in hurry, but we forgot about the underlying cause that at the appropriate age did we make children about waiting for a concept? It can always be learned from the same-aged children

Children experience fewer and fewer opportunities to explore nature, run, roll, climb, and swing and because outdoor play is part of being a child, we must find a variety of ways to provide quality outdoor play experiences.

“Let them Play, Let them Explore, Let them Create and Let them Integrate “!


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Nice Blog

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