Benefits Of Outdoor Play For Kids

There are so many great benefits of outdoor play for kids, and it is crucial to the general development our children, but not all get enough of it. In this post we dive into why outdoor play is so important and how you can encourage more of it.

Outdoor Play

Those of us born in the 20th century can agree that outdoor play with our friends was the best part of our day whether at the park, school or neighbourhood.

A typical fun day involved building castles with sand alongside our friends, playing hide and seek and running around.

The benefits of outdoor play added lots of colours to our day while giving us so much energy and improving our social life.

Now days, with the high surge of gadgets like mobile phones that have access to video games like PES soccer games, fast and furious, GTA and social media platforms like YouTube, Tiktok, and Facebook, our kids are somehow glued to their gadgets at the slightest chance.

Most parents are even guilty of turning tablets into baby sitters for their kids.

Outdoor play is crucial to the general development of any child. Whether socially, emotionally, intellectually or physically.

The lack of physical activity through outdoor play in your kid’s life could lead to severe consequences like mental health disorders, childhood obesity, inability of the body to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, some types of cancer, cardio problems and at worse, death due to any of the above.

10 Benefits of Outdoor Play for Kids

Here we go through 10 amazing benefits of outdoor play for kids and why they should get more of it.

1. Outdoor play reduces the risk of childhood obesity

One of the biggest benefits of outdoor play for kids is the reduced risk of obesity. Outdoor play is a moderately intense physical activity. It involves the use of energy which burns up calories while keeping your child’s body index mass at the normal.

When your child takes part in outdoor play, there’s plenty of physical activity which helps fight overweight that could lead to childhood obesity.

For example, a child who plays hide and seek or catching the ball for up to 40 minutes every day is less likely to become obese compared to a child who spends 2-3 hours everyday on their iPad.

2. Playing outside improves strength & physical health

Outdoor play is equal to a boost of stamina and energy for your child throughout the day.

When your child takes part in activities like running, dancing, climbing, jumping, stretching, walking, cycling or even swimming, it strengthens their muscles and joints while improving agility and coordination.

3. Outdoor play improves kids attention span and openness with family

Outdoor play means your kid gets to interact freely without interference in their own world with peers.

The happy hormones that come with the excitement allows them to relate easily with you as their parent or caregiver.

They are very much likely to discuss their minds openly with you at this point. Bright light helps kids concentrate so through outdoor play and competitive activities like sports require a big chunk of your kid’s concentration. This means their general attention span could show great improvement.

4. More outdoor play means more opportunities to discover and love nature

Spending quality time outdoors means spending time with nature at a closer range.

Considering how fast nature is depleting, encouraging outdoor play for your kid helps them learn how to love and care for nature effortlessly from an early age.

You could even lecture them a little on the effects of deforestation and climate change.

5. Outdoor play for kids exposes them to a larger learning environment

Outdoor play makes education much more fun because it’s outside the classroom.

With an unlimited range of play objects to interact with, your kid would be able develop amazing motor skills.

Even heading out on a walk, or going hiking the kids will benefit from the environment around them.

6. Outdoor play can boost kids brain development

Outdoor play boosts your kid’s imagination and creativity. During this time, your child gets to display organization skills as well as decision making skills while working solely or collaborating with their friends to create and solve problems.

Research has shown that during playtime, the frontal cortex which is the part of the brain responsible for controlling problem solving skills and emotions is also more active during play sessions.

7. Kids can improve their use of their 5 senses with more outdoor play

When your child spends more time outdoors, they get to experiment using all 5 senses. Seeing and tasting the fresh air, hearing the horn from cars and bicycles driving by, feeling the texture of different plant leaves and identifying their different smells, hearing the birds chirp and feeling the breeze blow against their skin etc.

This gives them an all-round experience which is not the case when they are indoors staring into their gadgets.

8. Play improves kids communication skills

Outdoor play means your kid gets to play around with their vocabulary and learn new words easily.

For example, your kid understands snow better when they can see, feel and touch it. At this point, it’s easy to widen their understanding because they are learning in the present.

9. Outdoor play for kids gives a sense of independence

Spending time outside the house away from parents sometimes allows the child to identify, develop opinions, tackle problems and coin solutions by themselves.

This kind of achievement leaves the child with a strong sense of Independence and accomplishment.

10. Peer relationships are enhanced with outdoor play

Outdoor play means exposure to more sunlight and a greater dose of Vitamin D. This means your child’s mood is elevated and much better.

Research shows that kids who participate in outdoor play are less likely to be bullies among their peers as they have a large space to release any frustrations and stagnant energy.