Building Healthy Habits with Outdoor Play During the Early Years
/Updated 10 Jan 2022
Most parents know their children do better after a good bout of play outdoors. The fresh elements, natural sensory elements, and opportunities for creative imagination are part of why we as adults appreciate and enjoy the calming aspects of nature too.
Why do we need to build habits with outdoor play?
Most of us would say our kids are spending too much time indoors (usually watching TV and playing video and computer games). A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that the average eight to eighteen year old kid is now spending an alarming 7 hours and 38 minutes of electronic screen time per day—that is almost half their waking hours.
Often the focus is on “pre-preparation” for academics, or the training of the mind; but we ensure our children develop healthy bodies by playing outdoors. The recommendation for the preschool years is at least 1 hour of outdoor play. In Singapore, the Health Ministry and Education Ministry in 2017 said that pre-school children will get at least an hour of physical activity a day, double the current 30 minutes.
Time outdoors in natural spaces help calm the body’s sympathetic/stress responses. Researchers at the University of Illinois have determined that 30 minutes of time in a park setting will help children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to be able to concentrate in the classroom and act more calmly and with more focus at home.
Homeschooling curriculums recognise how important getting outdoor activity is to the success of the daily rhythm of learning and playing. For example, Charlotte Mason recommends even more — 4 to 6 hours of outdoor play!
(Side note: Charlotte Mason wrote books about educating children, and her philosophy advised delaying formal education until age six, instead advocating play (a lot of it outdoors!) and work with the gentle boundaries of the family. Nature study is a very important component to a Charlotte Mason method. Mason believed children should spend as much time as possible outdoors, and had students keep detailed nature journals and used nature guides to discover and identify the natural world in their neighborhood.)
In this post, I'll share with you some ideas ideas that you can use for to build healthful habits with your little ones during outdoor play. Given the opportunity to play outdoors and have fun, children will develop meaningful connections with their natural environment and build habits into their grown-up years!
Embrace the outdoors, daily
Once in Norway, and again in Finland, I heard the phrase: No bad weather, but poor clothing. Charmed by the Scandinavian attitude and the array of outdoor sports available in the worst of winters, I began to adopt this when I had my own children, and then learnt different cultures have their own variations of the same phrase.
I live where searing heat and persistent mosquitos can wear me down during the hotter seasons, and make any outdoor attempt a plain drag (if not danger for heat stroke). To work around this, we played early in the morning or snuck quick trips to the playground after the worst heat of the day was over. Outdoors is not a novelty, but part of our daily routine.
Modern research supports this. Lack of outdoor time is linked to many childhood problems, like Sensory Processing Disorder, obesity, and even ADHD.
“Never be within doors when you can rightly be out.” Charlotte Mason, Home Education, page 42
Have meals al fresco (or at a balcony). Take your chores and hobbies outside. Find any way to situate your activities outdoors, or a semi-outdoor environment.
2. Observe the patterns and cycles of Nature
Ask the child to go observe the clouds, a tree, flower, or other interesting feature. Have them come back to report what they have seen. This helps increase their vocabulary, ability to remember, and ability to recount without exaggeration.
This encourages a child to use their five senses while looking at things in nature, or objects around the house. It also sharpens their relationship to their natural environment.
3. Take time to touch and ground
If you’re wearing shoes all the time, try taking them off to feel the fresh grass. Pause to touch the soft petals of a flower, or hear the hum of a bee. These actions offer ways for your bodies to ground to the Earth and absorb its beneficial frequencies, instead of skimming past when we are outdoors.
4. Slow your rhythm to match Nature’s frequencies
Ask your children to “listen to the quiet or to any buzzes and hums you hear. At appropriate times, make space for a break to take in. If your children are a little older, ask them describe to you this landscape of calm silence. This can seem like an abstract task, but it can be enjoyable when presented as a game.
This helps a child grow awareness of the difference between feeling busy, especially if you live hectic schedules amidst city living, and feeling calm. He or she will easily connect the ways to access this, through attention to their body’s awareness.
5. Let them play
When you and your child are outside for play, don’t waste the opportunity by impeding your child’s play. This means giving them space and time to play, uninterrupted (under your watchful eye). True free play is the work that children must do to grow and develop a strong body and mind.
Sometimes this means letting your toddler climb the rings higher without saying “no, that’s dangerous”. Or gently guiding or diverting him or her without saying “you can’t do that.”
Let your five-year-old holler his heart out for a bit and hold any comment as he seems to swing a little too high. You’ll be heartened to observe, that usually, children can find their own boundaries. Your toddler will likely pause if he cannot reach a bar, and your primary school age child will choose not to climb to the top after all. Usually they find these boundaries better playing by themselves or in smaller, rather than larger, groups.
You will observe your children naturally inclined to seek these activities which stimulate the proprioceptive sense:
Pushing (for example against heavy instruments as the swing, merry-go-round)
Pulling (tug of war, or hanging from bars)
Squeezing (climbing small spaces, crawling under structures)
Climbing or lifting
Stretching (e.g. more climbing and taking leaps!)
They are growing their proprioception (from Latin proprius, meaning "one's own" and capio “to take or grasp”) senses, which are what helps them understand their self-movement, force, and body position. Physical activities which stimulate this sense have an organising effect on the brain.
This sets them up for more disciplined movements later whether it is sports or sitting still for fine motor tasks — such as writing.
For some parents, getting outside seems more like a chore rather than a relaxing pleasure. There are risks and potential for accidents everywhere.
The hours that we spend outside are sure to make up some of your children’s most treasured memories of childhood. By making habits to connect better to our natural environment, you are building their toolset to help regulate their well-being, and growing their awareness of the natural elements.
