The magic of the outdoors!
What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen in a passing cloud? Watching clouds never gets old, does it? Finding those faces and creatures, or just watching as they drift across the sky can fill many an idle moment. As you watch, you find yourself slowing down, breathing differently, and calming.
Nature is magical!
But, research is showing that we aren’t spending time enjoying being in it.
In 2012, the National Trust did a survey that showed that children were half as likely to play outdoors than their parents had as children, and in 2015, the RSPB published a report warning that only 1 in 5 young people reported a connection with nature. People in maximum security prisons are spending more time outside than children are with one in 10 never spending any time outside, according to a Persil advert. As one man in the Persil advert ‘free the children’ says,
‘if you don’t need to throw the kids in the bath at the end of the day, they haven’t played hard enough!’
What’s so good about children being outdoors?
Being outside helps promote physical activity for your baby obviously, this is great for their health, but it’s also been linked to better outcomes at school (when the time comes).
Outdoor play, particularly play that uses nature at the centre of it, develops a child’s motor skills, core strength and their sensory systems which form the foundation for a range of other skills.
Nature gives your child the chance to explore the world around them: starting from lying on a mat under a tree watching the leaves move in the wind, crawling on the grass, splashing in puddles, to walking along fallen logs.
Nature stimulates curiosity: Think about a toddler watching a bee collecting pollen. When my middle child was a toddler, he sat and watched a bee as it went about its work. I heard him say, ‘fluffy bee’, I turned to see him stroking it - not long after the tears came when he was inevitably stung!
Nature is constantly changing. A mud kitchen on a dry day in the summer is a very different place to a mud kitchen in November in the rain! This environmental change enables your child to investigate, explore, push boundaries, assess risks, and test their own limits.
Nature stimulates curiosity, creativity and focus. When children are playing in nature, they play for longer and are more focused and engaged than when they play in artificial environments. This is because the play encourages creativity. They need to create the game for themselves, often morphing during the playing period into something quite different to where it started. They investigate more, question more, and persist longer. Think here about a one-year-old with a wheelbarrow full of water and some pouring things, sticks, leaves, and flowers. Just watch to see what happens, ask the odd question, engage with them and ask them what they are doing and why, and you will see that your child is completely absorbed by the activities that they are doing. The game may change, morph, or develop, but they are learning, focused, and absorbed by it and developing their curiosity and creativity, their scientific and mathematical understanding as they play.
Research shows that nature is brilliant for our mental health and well-being.
We all know that just drinking in those calm green spaces really does give us a boost, and it’s the same for your baby or toddler too… take a cranky baby outside for a walk and you have a calm baby in moments. Show a fractious toddler a puddle and let them explore it, and you’ll have them busy for hours. Nature really is magical! It also improves our mood! How many times have we come back from a walk and just felt better?
We all know we need to do more to save our planet. Bringing our children up to enjoy nature’s toys benefits everyone. Children are happy with whatever toys we provide for them, so rather than providing lots of plastic toys to be used inside, why not make use of the ‘toys’ that nature provides?
There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing
In Scandinavia, for years, children have spent all year ‘round outside in their nursery schools, whatever the weather. I’m not sure who said this, ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing, and that’s so true for our children and getting them to play outside. Having clothes like Kidunk trousers that really are fit for purpose is game-changing. A warm, dry child will play in the coldest and wettest of environments perfectly happily for hours.
Outside, behaviour which is trying inside becomes acceptable - a boisterous toddler can run and jump outside without being told off, they can swing and play and investigate. It’s a space to say ‘yes’ rather than have repeated ‘no’s. It can be a reset space. Finding a safe place for your baby or toddler to explore outside can turn a bad day into a happy one!
So, why keep the play inside this season, when you could take it outside at every opportunity? Your baby can just as easily do tummy time on a mat in the garden, learn to crawl in the grass, explore the flowerbeds and investigate the pebbles as they can inside if you’ve got their clothing (and yours) right.
On a dry day, bring the chalk outside and let your toddler draw on the path or give them a brush and some water and tell them to paint big.
Fill the watering can with water and let them water whatever they want.
Put some pegs on a bucket and let them practice pegging them on the edge of the bucket.
Let them wash their dollies outside.
You can even put your baby to sleep for their naps outside; they will sleep better and longer so long as you have the right amount of covers on them and they aren’t in the direct sunlight and they are in a safe place. If you want more ideas and an understanding of the learning your child is gaining from your play, the Oliiki app has this covered for all ages from conception to two.
Make it your challenge this season to spend as much time as possible outside.
Throw open the doors to the garden if you have one and use the outside space as part of your house. Go to the park, splash in puddles, make mud pies in the woods and wonder at the worms as they wiggle by.
Make sure your baby has the right clothing on, and then be sure to run a bath in the evening because you will need to throw the kids in the bathtub at the end of the day!
