With the pandemic keeping children indoors most of the time, they get to have more screen time and passive play time through devices instead of getting out and about exploring the wonders of the natural world around them.
As the lockdowns and restrictions are lifted, help children regain their curiosity and build their appreciation for everything nature has to offer.
What can Children Develop from Being Outdoors?
Observational Skills
Children can practice their observational skills by exploring their natural surroundings and discovering other living things in nature.
A simple game of ‘I Spy’ helps children identify the things they see and widen their knowledge and vocabulary.
It helps children be more aware of their surroundings and how nature operates to create their beautiful surroundings.
Resourcefulness
Children learn through play and being out in nature enhances their creative flair for finding ways to play using only their imagination and the objects around them.
Letting them build forts, tents, and other makeshift structures encourages their creativity and imagination in crafting something from the available materials around them.
Agility and Balance
Stomping around, running, balancing, swinging, and traipsing–these are just a few of the physical activities that let children develop their motor skills in a fun way.
They are able to stretch their limbs and limits when it comes to physical activities.
They learn when to take risks and see how far they can go doing physical activities like climbing a tree or reaching for a branch to swing at.
What Outdoor Activities can Children Do and Continue at Home?
Journaling
Children can document their interactions with nature through journaling.
They can continue recording interesting things they see in nature such as new insects, flowers, plants, or trees.
Or they can list weather conditions, changes, or patterns.
This activity can help children exercise their writing, spelling, and observation skills.
Collecting
Children can also collect small items they find outdoors and categorize them.
Whether it be rocks or flowers or leaves, these can be easily collected and arranged in terms of color, shape, size, or look.
The variance in these natural finds lets them discover the wonderful differences in nature that help hone their categorization skills.
Children can also sharpen their observation skills as they try to identify the similarities and differences of the objects they collect.
Building
From makeshift tents to forts, little bridges, fences, campfires, even toys, children, with a little bit of help from adults, love to experiment and create things from scratch.
Their observational skills help them spot materials they can use for the things they are building.
As they’re building their mini-buildings, they learn how structures can be formed through tying, binding, and balancing–which is a little bit different and harder than using legos.
It forces them to think creatively about how to make their materials fit what they’re building and even decorate it.
It also improves their dexterity as they grab sticks and stones.
Nature-based play allows children to have open-based plays that exercises their creativity and imagination. It allows them to interact with nature and evoke their curiosity in learning more about the environment and world we live in.
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