The world is their playground: The Importance of outdoor exploration
- Learning Resources Posted On Jul 22, 2021 | Learn
Outdoor play and exploration is an important part of childhood. It allows children the freedom to be adventurous, move freely, let off steam, and just be kids. According to the Wildlife Trusts' Every Child Wild report, children are happier, healthier, less stressed and more creative when they’re connected to the natural world.
Modern lifestyles mean that kids are spending a lot more time indoors, and city living can make it hard to find places where children have the space and freedom to run, jump, and make a noise. The good news is that even just being close to nature can make a difference. Children who live up to a kilometre away from a green space are happier and more upbeat.
The better news is that while green is great, any time spent exploring and playing outside is good for kids, and with a little creativity, you and your child can come up with fun activities to engage kids (almost) all year round. Let’s head outside and turn the world into their playground!
In the garden
A garden is the perfect place to let children explore and play in a free, unstructured way while they’re still in your view. Allowing children open-ended, free play outside gives them the opportunity to let their imaginations run wild. A box becomes a race car, a tree trunk becomes a fairy’s house, and mud becomes primordial slime hiding dinosaur fossils. Old boxes and sheets can be turned into pretend play pirate ships, or a picnic site for teddies. Or your child can simply lie back, stare at the sky, and ponder all those important questions children ask (like why don’t we float off into the sky, or why is the sky blue?).
A garden is also ideal for structured play and exploration. Encourage outdoor imaginative play with a dinosaur hunt. Your child could dress up in safari gear, grab a magnifying glass or binoculars and hunt for dinosaurs. You could even hide some toy dinosaurs around the garden.
Explore sensory and messy play
Even a small outdoor garden area can be turned into a haven for sensory exploration and play. Wind chimes, streamers, windmills, and bubbles let kids investigate the effects of wind. You could take your child on a blindfolded discovery walk – tell your child to close their eyes and describe what they can hear, smell and touch. And there’s nothing like letting your child get stuck in with digging, raking, and planting to teach them about how things grow. For a kid-friendly guide to gardening, read more about how to get your garden ready for growing vegetables here.
Nothing beats good old messy play, and water play is an ideal way to let kids make a splash (and learn a lot along the way). Create a sensory pond in a water table using insect and aquatic counters and sensory materials such as sponges, sticks, stones, and sand. Use alphabet and number sand moulds to improve letter and number recognition. Pour and mix liquids of different colours and consistencies at the water table using jugs and stirrers.
In your neighbourhood
Not having access to a garden doesn’t mean your child has to miss out on outdoor play opportunities. A paved area can be turned into a play area with pavement chalk. Kids can draw a hopscotch game or simply draw and colour. Why not trace around each other and draw amazing butterfly wings? A downpour or quick spray with a garden hose will wash the surface clean, ready for more creative fun.
PS. Even simple activities like jumping in puddles after the rain or flying a kite on a windy day are fun reasons to head outside and play.
In the Park
Jumping, climbing, swinging and hanging on playground equipment is not only fantastic for kids to burn off pent-up energy, these activities help develop gross and fine motor skills. A trip to the park can also be a fun learning journey. Download and print our free nature spotting activity sheet and take it with. These kinds of activities help encourage observation skills and inspire a love of nature. You'll finds lots more activity sheets and ideas here.
Toys that encourage outdoor play and exploration:
- GeoSafari® Jr. Bug Viewer Jar: Ideal for catching and watching six- and eight-legged critters! (Don’t worry parents, there are airholes to let insects breathe!)
- Jumbo Dinosaurs Set 2: These prehistoric pals are perfect for hiding in the garden and creating a mini dinosaur park. Or use them to make pretend fossils using by pressing them into salt dough. This guide from SEN Resources blog shows you how.
- New Sprouts® Camp Out!: Pretend campfire? Check. Lantern? Check. Hotdog? Check. Camp out just like a grown-up with these pretend play toys.
- GeoSafari® Jr SeaScope®: Peek under water with this real working science tool for young kids. Children can check out ponds, streams, lakes, rockpools and more. Even the bird bath in your garden.
- GeoSafari® Jr Kidnoculars™: Ready for an outdoor adventure, these kid-tough real working binoculars are ideal for ages 3+.
- Primary Science® Jumbo Magnifiers: These child-safe magnifying glasses are perfect for curious young explorers.
Fun ideas to #GetOutdoors with BritMums
As warmer weather arrives and lockdown unwinds, we’re all ready to get outside with our kids! To help us enjoy stimulating outdoor play like never before, we hosted a Twitter chat party in collaboration with our friends at BritMums.
Fun ideas to get outdoors
Everyone was encouraged to share stories, fun ideas, and suggestions for ways to get the most out of outdoor play. We had a fantastic time talking to everyone but if you missed out, don’t worry – we’ve rounded up some of the best ideas below.
Oh, and we also ran a competition to win a GeoSafari® Jr. Kidnoculars® Extreme™ - a fantastic toy for a child to take with them on an outdoors adventure!
What does your child like to do when playing outside?
We kicked off the Twitter chat with a question sure to offer us all some inspiration, and Catherine jumped in with a fantastic response: seed-growing!
Planting and growing plants helps kids learn about plant science, but it also teaches them to care for other living things. They’ll learn patience, too, and getting mucky with trowels and pots is always fun.
If you want to sow some seeds with your little ones, take a look at our guide to growing fruits and vegetables!
Liz, on the other hand, had a very different activity:
You might not think of litter-picking as fun, but it’s a great way to teach kids responsibility for their local area, as well as some climate science too. But it can also be a game – who can collect the most litter?
Mel gets her kid outdoor with a much more traditional activity that we all just love here at Learning Resources: dens!
Mel and Skye have made a great den in that photo, but you can make your dens as basic as you like – even a sheet over a tree branch will get their imaginations going!
Meanwhile, Amy’s son is out there making spaces for all the little bugs to sleep!
Bug hotels are easy to make. A plastic bottle is perfect – cut it in half and you can make two for the price of one! And when it’s time to come in, getting your child to draw a picture of what the hotel looks like inside is a great way to extend the fun.
Speaking of extending the outdoor fun, Sarah had some more tips for us.
Painting leaves is a great way to start talking to your child about Autumn, but it’s also fun to just create weird and wonderful leaves! Stick them onto a drawing of a tree trunk to create a fun, 3D illustration.
If you’re not ready to come inside after a walk, here’s another way to keep the fun going:
Mel had an important reminder for us all:
British weather means we can’t always rely on sunny days! We must be lucky that kids love puddles and mud so much!
Sam has a great idea that will not only teach the kids about science and will also give them something fun to do with old toys.
She had another brilliant suggestion too – an activity that will get your child looking at the world in a little more detail, as well as creating something pretty that they can show off!
What mental health benefits do your kids get from outdoor play?
We turned next to the mental health benefits of outdoor play, and Catherine was one of many to highlight a huge benefit that helps parents too: better sleep!
Some studies have found that children are twice as active outdoors as they are indoors. Exercise of any form releases endorphins into our bloodstream, which helps the brain create melatonin which helps to regulate a good night’s sleep.
Catherine (a different one!) highlighted another benefit to getting outdoors: talking.
Without the distraction of screens and an emphasis on exploring, getting outdoors naturally encourages conversation. Not only does this help with language skills, but it also helps kids to get things off their chest and work through any questions or concerns they might have.
What has your child missed most about the outdoors during lockdown?
The conversation took a downbeat turn when we asked this question.
Unsurprisingly, most people responded with friends and family. Lockdowns have really restricted our ability to socialise, and children feel that as much as we adults do. We’re lucky that we live in a time where video calling is a thing! This time is even tougher on children without siblings too.
The problem of being restricted to our local areas is something that Cate summed up nicely:
It's difficult to hold an adult’s attention with the same setting, let alone a child’s! It can be hard to find something fresh to do with kids when you take them outside, so we loved this tip from Katrina:
Chris pointed out that it’s not just the faces of friends and family that kids miss – it’s their favourite places too.
Try to get your kids excited about going outdoors by recreating their favourite locations in your garden or local park. Get them to imagine the zoo, for example – what are the animals doing? Are there any new additions to the zoo? And, of course, they can play in ways they couldn’t at the actual zoo - perhaps they could pretend to get in with the chimpanzees and have a party?
Discovering our local areas
We decided to turn the chat towards the positive by exploring an overlooked benefit of the lockdowns – it’s given us a chance to learn new things about our local areas!
For instance, Mia learnt about a surprising historical link between her town and a rather famous American.
For the curious, this is Thrapston, a town in Northamptonshire! Montague House was the family home of Sir John Washington, the great great great uncle of George Washington. Does your local area have any surprising history?
Ria’s discovery has fewer links to the USA but is delightful nonetheless – horses.
Even if you think you live in a built-up area, you might be surprised to find wildlife close by. A little lockdown adventure can reveal plenty about where you live! Cate discovered woods and a beach all within walking distance.
Don’t fret if there are no sandy paradises or wild forests where you live – Katrina makes the very good point that kids are just as happy exploring a local estate.
What are you keen to do outside with your children
We turned to the future with our next question: ‘What are you keen to do outside with your children?’
Sarah jumped in with a great idea: geocaching.
Geocaching is a great way to get your kids exploring outdoors. Geocaching is essentially a treasure hunt that anyone can play, with caches hidden at certain points and ready to discover.
If exploration isn’t for you, Ria’s got a delicious idea for all of us to get stuck into once the lockdown is over: fruit picking.
If you’ve been planting seeds in the garden at home, this can also give them a sneak peek at what they’ll get once their seeds have bloomed into fully grown plants!
Sarah reminded us that it’s not always about big, flashy activities – sometimes that classic ones are the best.
What do you think is the best thing about outdoor play
Finally, we asked everyone ‘What do you think is the best thing about outdoor play?’
Chloe summed it all up rather nicely: the exploration prompts dozens of new games and activities and, as we already mentioned, the mental health benefits are huge!
With a roadmap out of lockdown and the NHS rapidly vaccinating the population, we’re getting closer to a time when we can head back out into the outdoors. This is great news for our kids! But as they go back to school, spare a thought for their furry friends who have got used to having them around all the time.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a Twitter chat without a prize involved! Congratulations to Katrina Fox who won one of our GeoSafari® Jr. Kidnoculars® Extreme™ for her little girl.
Share your ideas! What tips do you have for getting kids outdoors, or for activities to do outside of the home? Visit us on social media to let us know.
Learning Resources has loads of fun ideas to encourage outdoor play and exploration. Shop our Outdoor Play toys, read more about The Importance of Outdoor Play and find 5 Ways To Explore The World Without Leaving Your Back Garden.
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