As parents, we want our children to enjoy being outdoors. But should they spend their entire childhood indoors?
It’s true that kids who play outside tend to be healthier and happier. They also get better grades and perform better at school. In short terms - spending time outdoors is incredibly important for your child's wellbeing and development.
How We Can Help
As a parent, you want your child to grow up healthy and happy. As they grow, however, inside tends to be where they spend most of their time. With so many mental, social, and physical benefits associated with being outside, though, it's your job to reduce screen time and keep learning and growing with nature!
We believe in the importance of outdoor time and we want to help you get your little one excited about spending time in nature. Toddle has lots of activities to do with your child to get them outside, including making a kite, creating a scavenger hunt, and growing fruit and veggies from seeds!
Physical Benefits
The physical health benefits of playing outside are numerous:
- It helps build muscles and improves overall health. Playing sports or doing other activities with a group of friends can help you gain strength.
- Being active boosts both fine and gross motor skills, such as running, jumping, picking up small items, and playing with natural toys.
Mental Benefits
Being outside will also improve your little one's mental health:
- It boosts self confidence. When your child is out in the fresh air, they'll feel more confident about themselves. They'll have more energy too, but also use more (get ready for bedtime)!
- It lowers stress levels. Going outside lets your child take a break from all those worries.
- It makes children happy. There have been studies to show that kids who spend more time outdoors and in natural light are happier in their everyday life.
- It encourages learning! Remember when you were a kid and you could watch bugs and look at leaves for hours? That is exactly what going outside encourages in our kids.
Social Benefits
Finally, there are social benefits to being outside as well.
- It teaches them how to interact with others. Children learn how to share and work together by playing games like tag or hopscotch.
- It gives them opportunities to meet new people. Kids love making new friends. And if they do make friends, they'll have even more fun playing together.
Encouraging Your Child To Play Outside
Now that you know why it's good for your child to go outside, let's talk about ways to encourage your child to play outside.
Take Them To Fun Places
If you live near a park, playground, or beach, take your child there often. Don't just take them into your backyard and assume that they're going to find it interesting for the 10th time in a week. Explore the world!
Image credit: @lifewiththehoulders
Make It Interesting
Try to keep things interesting by playing games and switching up outdoor activities. You're competing with screens here, so you need to make sure that your child wants to engage in fun physical activities while being outside.
Invite Their Friends
No one wants to play outside alone, so bring friends and family around to help them find the fun in being outdoors in nature. They'll also be able to benefit from quality time with their loved ones.
