With games consoles, tablets and the internet to keep kids entertained, it can sometimes be a struggle to get your little ones to spend time outside. But it is important that we find ways to encourage our children to spend at least a few hours a day out in the fresh air.
Playing outside and taking part in outdoor activities is important for children’s development. It allows them to learn new things, keep active, learn about nature, and express themselves in a free way. But how can you get your kids up off the sofa and out and about?
There are lots of ways you can encourage your little ones to spend more time outside, from signing them up to take part in an outdoor sport to teaching them about gardening. With some fun activities and the right encouragement, you can easily get your kids to spend more time outside.
- Watch wildlife
Kids love learning about animals and insects, so wildlife watching is the perfect way to encourage them to spend more time outside.
All you need to do is invest in a pair binoculars if you don’t already have a pair that is, a notebook and a camera. Start off wildlife watching in your garden, go outside with your child and see how many different animals and insects your child can spot.
For each new insect or animal, your child finds, help them to write the name of the insect or animal down in their wildlife notebook. You could also take a picture of it on your camera so that you can print it out and stick it in your child’s notebook.
Once you have found everything living in your garden, you can then take your child to different places to wildlife watch, like the park, woodland areas, and even, the beach.
- Create a vegetable garden
Not only is creating a vegetable garden an easy way to get your kids to spend more time outdoors, it is also fantastic for teaching them about where their food comes from.
You can either create a vegetable patch in a free area of the garden, or you could grow your veggies in wooden boxes. This will depend on how much garden space you have and what area of your garden gets the most sun. If your garden doesn’t get much sun, you might want to visit the HydroGrow website to have a look at LED grow lights to help your veggies grow.
To make vegetable growing more fun, buy seeds for all your little one’s favourite vegetables. You could also ask your child to pick a couple of packets of seeds for vegetables they haven’t tried before – this is a great way of encouraging them to try new things.
- Start a nature-inspired arts and crafts project
Kids love collecting things, from shells and rocks to pine cones and acorns; most children will pick up anything. To encourage your kids to spend more time outside, start a nature-inspired arts and crafts project with them.
Head out in the garden or to the local park and collect as many natural items as possible, the best things for this tend to be leaves, flowers, rocks, acorns, and pine cones. Then once you get back home, help your child to paint and collage them into an amazing art project.
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