In this digital age, children are more likely to spend their time playing with their gadgets than having fun with physical activities outside the household. Thus, as parents looking to foster our children’s growth, we should encourage our children to play outside more. After all, children living a sedentary lifestyle hinders growth and prevents them from developing physical and social skills.
Play-based learning is a proven strategy for a child’s growth by encouraging learning through fun and engaging activities. Here’s one reason why.
Children Who Frequently Play Outside are Happier
It’s no secret that physical activities provide children exercise to improve their health and get them in shape. Playing outside allows kids to run, jump, climb, and frolic while performing various fun, wholesome activities. Remember, the more children spend energy outside playing, the higher the likelihood of developing a more robust immune system.
The Best Location to Promote Play-Based Learning is in Your Backyard
All children love to have fun at playgrounds and waterparks. They’ll have access to toys and activities they can’t usually play with at home. But sometimes, mitigating factors prevent us from traveling outside with our children. These factors include health or safety, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, all of which hinder them from play-based learning that will nurture their unique talents.
Play-based learning is perfect for growing children. And best of all, you can do it from the comfort of your house. So, hire a residential mower and clean up your yard. It’s time to have fun with your kid!
Landscape Your Backyard with Your Children
There’s no better way to upgrade your yard’s landscaping and teach your children about nature than planting flowers and garden beds. Planting provides a great learning opportunity to educate children on how plants function and how to properly care for them. From planting a seed to routinely watering the plants to harvesting fruits, planting is a productive year-long activity from start to finish. Plus, you’ll let your children experience the responsibility of nurturing another living being.
Keep Your Head in the Clouds
If you’re looking to up the ante and have the budget to spare, you can install a backyard telescope with which you can stargaze. Stargazing is an easy and fun entry to astronomy for children. Don’t worry if you don’t have a real telescope. You can build a makeshift telescope with cardboard rolls and decorate it with your kids. A makeshift telescope won’t see the deepest parts of the galaxy, but it’ll help them focus on the constellations you’re teaching. You never know, in the future, your kid might turn up to be a world-famous astronomer, all thanks to your DIY astronomy nook.
Let Your Children Imagine Their Hearts Out
The backyard might look ordinary for you and me, but the backyard holds limitless potential for fun to children. That’s why it’s a great idea to inspire children in roleplay by building a stage they can use. Install a simple set in your backyard with curtains or blankets suspended on a clothesline. Try executing a backyard play with your children and their friends. You can help them out with building props they can use, and you and the parents of your children’s friends can be the audience. This activity promotes imagination and is an excellent entry to acting and improv.
Teaching acting to your kids isn’t the only way to promote imagination and creative thinking. Upcycle an old cabinet or table and add wheels to turn it into a rocket ship or car with which they can play. Plus, you can decorate your homemade rocket ship using paint and stickers with your kids.
Promote Art-Based Activities in Your Backyard
Your backyard is the perfect location to teach your children the wonders of art. A straightforward way to introduce art is by painting. Buy a canvass and some child-safe paints to let your kid’s innate artistic skills shine. From handprint crafts to cute drawings of dinosaurs, painting is sure to let your child’s imagination and talents flourish. Best of all, once the paint has dried, you can proudly display your children’s art pieces in your refrigerator.
Another way to promote art is through photography. You can teach your kids the fundamentals of photography and let them frolic around the backyard taking photos of interesting spots. If you’re looking to elevate the experience, you can add easter eggs they can photograph. If that’s not enough, you can explore creating Claymation videos. With this, you can make clay models with your children and a homemade movie you can all watch at the end of the day.
Final Thoughts: Playing Outside Promotes Parent-Child Bonding
Kids can entertain themselves with televisions or mobile devices, but nothing fosters positive child development other than parent-child bonding through play. Parents who bond with their children through playing elevates trust and affection within the family. After all, children look up to their parents the most. We must be good role models so that they can follow in our footsteps.
