Outdoor Fun

Outdoor FUN

Outdoor play benefits your pre-schooler in more ways than one

The great outdoors can do wonders for your child. Warm winter sunshine helps build vitamin D and charges your child with the energy to skip, jump and run. But you need to be around to supervise from a distance.

A variety of activities

There are various activities that the little kid can have a swell time with. Jog your memory, remember those nice games you used to play? Reconstruct them for your child and her friends. That will get them started and they will create their own world of games and make their own rules. Since the outdoors offer endless possibilities, the imagination of the little children will fire. Three-year-olds can be initiated into riding tricycles. The sense of thrill they get is perhaps comparable to the first time a toddler begins to walk. The riders feel that they are almost as grown up as their parents and can be entrusted with the independence to take on the world by themselves. Four-year-olds can be initiated into riding tricycles. The sense of thrill they get is perhaps comparable to the first time a toddler begins to walk. The riders feel that they are almost as grown up as their parents and can be entrusted with the independence to take on the world by themselves. Four-year-olds can now go a step further and move from tricycles to bicycles. The transition can be made smoother with a pair of training wheels fixed to the wheels at the back.

Too much caution undermines confidence

These are not dare-devil risks and you don’t need to be over cautious as that can undermine her confidence. In time, she will begin to make the logical connection between her actions and their consequences. Safer sports options are playing with a frisbee that enhances eye and hand coordination. This develops the competitive spirit and trains the little sports-persons to take fast decisions like the distance and speed at which to run to catch the disc in time.

A learning experience

Good old traditional games like hide-and-seek are a lot of fun too. These hone observation powers as children look for new hiding places. Team spirit helps in bonding with peers. Games like Tippy-tippy-tap, where you have to search for the right colours and objects, can help kids identify various kinds of leaves, flowers and uncommon colours like indigo, tawny and azure. Often, the little things that they learn through fun and games are remembered longer than what learn in their classrooms.

The goodness of running

Of course, there is nothing like a good run. No rules, boundaries or timings this time, just run in any direction on a grassy mound till she is ready to drop. Even that little run can provide wonderful exercise and pump the lungs with oxygen. Once they are tired, they can do less strenuous activities like drawing flowers and trees. The walk back home from the park can also be a learning experience. She learns directions and learns spatial skills like finding short cuts and discovering landmarks that help her identify the right way.

Enhancing sociability

Another thing that is important is that your little one needs to be with other kids her age. This is something kids miss out in small, one-child families. A child feels protected with her parents around but their denial of independence can hamper her emotional development. Out of experience, the kid will learn how to counter bullying by people who are not as kind as her parents. But again you need to supervise from a distance. When kids form a gang they can be too adventurous for their age. It’s nice as long as they want to collect leaves, but things get out of hand when they want to climb the trees. Just ensure that you gently nod them into thinking right. If you persist too much, it can be counter-productive and very soon you will have a little rebel in the house. Introduce options in a way that they don’t seen tame in comparison and something their younger siblings should do instead.

Family outings

Living in flats in cities we deprive our children of sights that they were meant to see. To see open skies and feel grass under their feet may be as important as food and education. So spending the weekend, where you either go out for picnics or go hiking as a family, is a wonderful way of spending time together. Hiking will not only be fun for your pre-schooler but also an exercise in endurance. It will help build her stamina as well as her lung-capacity. Planning a holiday where you introduce your child to things that she knows exist only in books, will fill her with excitement that will make you feel it was worth all the effort. Taking her to a beach or to the hills and watching her observe the wonders of creation will be an experience in itself. Sand and water play are also useful for a child’s knowledge of the physical world, an entry point into play with others, and for creative expression.

An awareness of the environment

Taking the child out into the realms of nature will also acquaint her with environment and probably now is the right time to make her aware of the issues of environment and inculcate the right habits that makes her sensitive to the plant and animal life around her. There is difference between reading about such things and actual experience. Having seen animals and plants for real will arouse the kind of empathy that will last a lifetime. If you have a garden, or a terrace with potted plants, you could encourage your child to take care of the plants. Gardening, say experts, teaches pre-schoolers are also fascinated and intrigued by the insects that gardens attract, including butterflies.

So, outdoor play, be it playing in the Neighbourhood Park or a family trip to the hills or the sea, will help your pre-schooler in more ways than one, as young children especially need the broad experiential base provided by being outdoors.