The Importance of Outdoor Activity for Kids & Ways to Encourage It

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As a parent, it’s our job to introduce our children to the world and make it clear to them which things are important and worth their time. You have more impact on them than you realise, and you can influence their actions for the better if you choose to after all children learn best by observing and watching what we do. That’s what we should be looking to do with regards to outdoor activity and how important it is for kids.

Before you can encourage your kids to spend more time being active outside, its a good idea to understand why this is so important to their development and growth at this key age. Here are a few of the reasons as to why outdoor activity is so important and how we can encourage our kids to be more active.

Exploring and Risk-Taking

When kids spend more time outside, they will learn to explore and take risks away from the security of the home setting. As a parent, that might sound a little scary to you, but it’s a really vital part of your child’s development. If you want your children to grow into well-rounded adults later in life, you have to encourage them to explore and leave their comfort zone more often than they otherwise would.

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Activity for Health

All parents worry about the health and wellbeing of their children. This is something you should be paying attention to as well. If you can persuade and encourage your children to spend more time outside, they will become healthier and fitter. Regular cardio exercise is essential to their health and it’s not something we should ignore for a second longer because childhood obesity is becoming a real problem today. Even 30 minutes of exercise a day is beneficial.

Enjoying and Appreciating the Outdoors

Simply appreciating and enjoying the great outdoors is important in itself, and it’s something every parent should look to encourage – and the best part is it is FREE. The natural world is precious to us and there are enough people in the world who don’t understand or appreciate it.  If they spend more time outdoors and have fun doing so, they’ll appreciate everything the great outdoors have to offer.

If you prefer to do things in the comfort of your own garden then you could have a look into the best outdoor climbing toys to see what you could add to your home.

Learning About the Planet

Another thing that comes with spending more time outdoors and taking more of an interest in nature is learning about the planet. If they’re willing to explore locations and see more of the world, they will inevitably learn more about it, and that’s something we should be looking to inspire in them. The wider their range of knowledge is, the stronger their educational attainment is likely to be. Become their guide and introduce them to all kinds of new things.

Go on Family Trips to Various Interesting Locations

Spending time outdoors is something that we always try to do as a family because it tends to make it more fun. You have to be willing to lead by example as a parent if you want your kids to be more active outdoors. You could take camping trips together if you want to or you could take big family trips to parts of the world your kids have never seen before. It will really broaden their horizons.

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Find Fun Ways to be Active

Spending time outdoors is something that should be fun and interesting; it should be something your kids look forward to and enjoy regularly. Don’t just stick to the basic fun and games that all kids are familiar with because that will limit the interest your kids have in outdoor activity. Instead, you need to come up with fun and new activities that will hold your kids’ interest. Using skates, bikes or even getting yourself an adult scooter to join in with the kids, or even unusual sporting equipment could all be considered. It will make outdoor activity far more fun.

Don’t Make it a Chore

If your kids feel like getting active and spending time outside is nothing but a chore that distracts them from the things they’d rather be doing inside, they’ll never develop that love of activity and nature.

That’s what we want to avoid so make sure you don’t force your child to do things or make it a routine thing that they’re expected to do. The focus should be on trying new things and enjoying time outdoors together as a family or with friends. Get outside and have fun with them – it really does help. I love nothing more than jumping on the trampoline with the kids – and if your pelvic floor has suffered since having kids don’t worry there are games you can play with don’t involve jumping such as Duck, Duck Goose -playing on the trampoline makes it a little harder. Or you could look at companies such as Wickey for outdoor play equipment such as a children’s swing, or you could look at bigger equipment such as swing, slide and climbing frames combined – there are some really awesome princess and pirate play equipment which I wish I had the garden space for.

The sooner you start emphasising the importance of outdoor activity to your children, the sooner you’ll see positive results for them. Do what you can to make the activity fun and don’t put too much pressure on them to do certain things because that’s a strategy that rarely works.

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