As we are head into Autumn and Winter seasons, it’s a great opportunity to head outdoors with your child and play. Our beautiful, sunny Brisbane days enable us to spend more time in the backyard and local parks to soak up a little sun, get some fresh air and actively play. This is so important for our child’s health and wellbeing.
Children need variety
Play is a child’s occupation and their work. Children need a variety of play opportunities to develop their big muscles and small muscles to enable them to manipulate objects they need to use in everyday tasks such as brush teeth, use a knife and fork, colour in with a pencil and cut with scissors.
Make it fun
Outdoor play encourages children to play games that develop their big and small muscles by running around, jumping over rocks, rolling down a grassy slope, climbing a fort or tree house, crunching leaves in their hands, digging while gardening and feeling the bark under their feet on a nature walk. These fun games also enable a child to develop their body awareness, spatial awareness and motor planning which helps them organise their movements for success. Being in nature enables a child to experiment, try different ways of doing an activity and provides sensory experiences.
Boost their creativity
Outdoor play taps into a child’s intrinsic motivation, boosts their creativity through opportunities to think outside the box and can help their thinking skills through making abstract concepts real. It promotes the love of being outdoors.
Enhance their ability to focus
Outdoor play also enables your child to practice their attention capabilities by focusing on the larger landscape they are in such as the whole park, as well as focus their eyes on the detail such as a lady beetle on a leaf. This modulation of attention is important for their ability to focus in other environments such as the classroom.
Get outdoors this winter and enjoy play time in nature with your child to promote their health and wellbeing!
For more ideas about playing outdoors, visit the Nature Play QLD website https://www.natureplayqld.org.au/