How to make your little ones spend more time outdoors?
Spending time outdoors will build kids’ confidence, promote creativity and imagination, teach responsibilities and get the little ones to move and stay more physically active. These are just some of the major benefits of spending time in nature, instead of laying back on the couch with their electronic gadgets. Therefore, you need to find ways to make your child love the outdoors and always opt for playing in the backyard instead of with their tablet. In case you need help with inspiration, we’ve got a few suggestions ready.
Encourage outdoor family activities
Children love to explore thanks to their innate curiosity, which is precisely why you should include them into every little gardening chore. Whether you’ve planted herbs in pots on your porch, or you have an entire garden in your backyard, let your child be your little helper the next time you need to plant or pick out the herb. Try easy-to-grow crops and look at your bundle of joy learning everything about how to grow tomatoes, lettuce, peas and carrots. Plant a few herbs on the patio or even try fast-growing flowers, and your kid will fall in love with nature.
Create a home playground
If kids have toys to play with, they’ll think of a way to play with them, but if they lack toys, they’ll reach for some other type of entertainment such as electronic gadgets. Therefore, make sure you provide your children with enough recreational items and you won’t be able to make them get inside even to eat and let alone play. Slides, swings, a kid-size climbing wall and sandboxes will be great sources of fun for your bundles of joy. With kid-friendly trampolines, your kids and their friends will have an entire afternoon of hopping fun and your backyard will be the little ones’ favourite place to hang out. If you get them a sandbox, you can also create a fun little treasure hunt – bury a box with a treasure inside the sand and give the kids a map to help them find their prize.
Ensure kid-friendly landscaping
Playing outside requires a certain level of safety for kids, which is why you should make sure that your landscaping is child-friendly. Skinned knees and bee stings are obviously inevitable, but what you can prevent is the risk of children injuring themselves more severely, and start safety assessment. Adjust the landscaping and make sure you remove all tripping hazards and trim low-hanging branches. Artificial grass can be a good choice for a backyard lawn or if you’ve created a playground area. This will also prevent the kids from stepping in mud or running into wet blades of grass once they rush outside after the rain. Synthetic turf provides a smooth, even, level playing surface keeping the kids away from tripping as they often do because of the mounds, clumps and holes in the natural grass lawns.
Go on a field trip every week
Spending quality family time in nature together sounds like a lovely way to spend your weekends. Nurture family time in nature and visit community gardens, local parks, woods, lakes, streams, fish hatcheries, forests, farms, and wildlife preserves. Take a magnifying glass with you and look for insects to incorporate a bit of fun into your nature exploring as well. If you don’t have an entire day free to go out of town, go to the beach, or for a bike ride, plan a backyard family camping trip, or walk the dog together.
Spending time outdoors is vital for your child’s development so make sure you set a good example by spending a lot of time outdoors, and encourage them to do the same. Build an at-home playground, childproof the backyard, take them on field trips and encourage family outdoor activities to make sure your child falls in love with nature and gets accustomed to spending as much time outside as possible.