Investing in Education Outside the Classroom Why Outdoor Play Matters
Play is an important component of a child’s physical, mental, and emotional growth and development. While certain skills, such as handwriting and multiplication, may be best initially taught using a pen and paper, other skills, like communication, spatial awareness, and active listening, can easily be brought outside. Even more so, these skills can be taught through outdoor play.
Teaching through play can be a more engaging way for children to master certain tasks. During play, children are exploring the world around them while interacting with their peers. Here are three reasons why investing in education outside the classroom is important and why outdoor play matters.
1. Encourages Physical Activity and Movement
Devices and screen time lure today’s kids. They beg to play an hour long with their friends on a video game. They cry while watching their favorite television show before bedtime. They quickly grab a parent’s phone when dining out for a family dinner. While the rise in technology has enhanced everyday life, it has also created a sense of being distracted and engaged 24/7. As a result, it’s much more difficult to get children outside for free play.
But outdoor play is one of the best ways to encourage physical activity and movement. When children play, they’re actively using all of their muscle groups. They’re using their quads and calves to lunge toward a ball. They’re swinging their arms to grasp onto a commercial swing set or monkey bars. They’re clinging to the rope as they climb their way to the top of a tall structure. Each of these movements helps increase activity and, therefore, decrease sedentary time.
The increases in childhood obesity and related diseases should be a wake-up call to parents, caretakers, and guardians of little ones. By promoting cardiovascular health, muscle movements, and coordination, outdoor time can help counteract some of the realities of today’s sedentary children. Moreover, involving children in the conversation about the importance of moving for a healthy lifestyle can also be beneficial. Teaching them early on how to best take care of themselves through fun, interactive ways can create lifelong healthy habits.
2. Reduces Stress and Anxiety
One of the most significant benefits of outdoor time is the calming sense of nature. Fresh air, sunshine, and open spaces help calm kids’ nervous systems. From a scientific standpoint, the stress hormone cortisol is lowered, and the production of serotonin is increased. Serotonin, also known as the “feel-good” chemical in the body, is responsible for mood regulation. It plays a key role in maintaining a child’s emotional balance and helping lessen the chance of stress, anxiety, or depressed moods.
Nature helps counteract children’s overstimulated bodies caused by devices and screens. Catching fireflies during the summer months at dusk, watching the birds fly high into the sky, and feeling the grass as they run to the playground are all ways that children can embrace nature during play while activating sensory experiences. Noticing different textures, sounds, and even smells helps enlighten children’s senses. These sensory experiences can also be a good learning opportunity.
Teachers who bring the classroom outdoors can act upon these kinds of teachable moments. For instance, a science lesson on the ecosystem can be used to see what plants need to thrive. A math lesson on distance and measuring can be used to estimate how long the distance is from one climbing structure to another. While these lessons can easily be taught indoors in a traditional classroom setting, teachers may find that students are more engaged and focused when they bring certain lessons outdoors and into nature.
3. Sparks Creativity and Imagination
Playing outdoors means there are no limits to a child’s imagination! During outdoor free play, kids can use their creativity to come up with pretend games with their friends. They may also decide that they are real monkeys as they grasp and climb on the playground structure. Or they may pretend that they’re sailing away in the depths of the ocean, fighting off pirates from their tall climbing play structure.
Fostering creativity and imagination is important for a child’s overall development. Thinking outside of the box means children will come up with new solutions and problem-solve on their own terms. The next time a dilemma arises, they may be quick to act and think of how to solve it themselves or with their friends. It also allows them to explore various possibilities, testing and learning to see which scenario is best or how each one will play out.
This type of innovative thinking is something that can be difficult to teach; rather, it’s best learned by experience. Outdoor play provides children with the opportunity to think for themselves in a fun, interactive way. A solution that one child proposes may spark an idea from another child, and so forth. That’s why a pretend game of playing dog and cat can turn into a full-on farmhouse in a matter of moments!
Tips and Takeaways
Outdoor play is more than just a recreational activity. It can be a chance to enhance a child’s learning. By bringing in different elements, teachers and guardians can activate children’s brains through fun, engaging ways.
