Come on. Admit it. When the kids aren’t home, you do it too. Throwing away some of the plastic junk that constantly litters the floor brings a certain thrill and satisfaction, knowing the kids will never miss it. Birthdays, holidays, and random trips to Target or the local thrift store can create piles of toys for the kids to sort through and manage. Then, there’s the “I have to have it, or I will die!” scenario that’s quickly replaced with “I played with it for one day, and now it’s boring.” It’s a never-ending cycle — but one that could end if we focus more on our kids playing outside.
Why Playing Outside Beats Playing With Toys
Toys: Love them or hate them, there’s a better way for children to entertain themselves. Playing outside is better than any toy that money can buy! Here’s why:
1. Playing Outside Involves All Senses and Activates the Brain
When playing outside, children have opportunities to feel the heat, cold, and wind. To hear birds, other animals, and the delightfully loud laughter of playmates. To touch and hold items with a variety of textures and weights. And to see a multitude of colors, shapes, variations of light, and landscapes. Outdoor play also builds skills like balance, agility, and spatial awareness as children run, jump, and climb over various terrains.4,5
2. The Outdoor Environment Is Constantly Changing
Outdoor play allows children to experience the changing seasons, a variety of weather, and the shifting plant and animal life throughout the year. They can run in the grass on a warm summer day, make snow angels in the winter, step in piles of crunchy, fallen leaves in the autumn, and pick colorful flowers in the spring. On a windy day, they can fly a kite outdoors; on a rainy day, they might put on their boots and splash in puddles. The possibilities are endless!
3. Children Can Play Outside With Others or by Themselves
A child may be content to spend hours watching ants bring food into their home or use chalk to draw pictures on the sidewalk by themselves. Other children might prefer playing outdoor games with other kids, such as hide-and-seek, hopscotch, chase, frisbee, or group scavenger hunts.
4. Playing Outside Promotes an All-Around Healthier, Happier Child
Outdoor play allows children to improve their health through exercise and even helps with eye health.4 In addition, “forest bathing” is an incredible way to increase the health and happiness of children. According to Forestry England, this is “a process of relaxation; known in Japan as shinrin yoku. The simple method of being calm and quiet amongst the trees, observing nature around you whilst breathing deeply can help both adults and children de-stress and boost health and wellbeing in a natural way.”1
5. Playing Outside Allows a Child To Find Freedom and Creativity
When playing outdoors, children have the freedom to run around, enjoy open spaces, and get in touch with their creative side through playing make-believe and finding interesting ways to pass the time.3,4 Richard Louv, the author of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder,” put it best when he said, “In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Nature — the sublime, the harsh, and the beautiful — offers something that the street or gated community or computer game cannot. Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. Nature offers healing for a child living in a destructive family or neighborhood.”
6. Playing Outside Builds Community
Being outside naturally encourages play with others, including kids in their neighborhood, the park, etc. Whether they’re playing tag, blowing bubbles together, playing a game that uses an outdoor toy like a ball, or simply exploring together, children can expand their immediate circle of playmates and invite others into their games to build connections and community.
7. Outdoor Play Builds Body Confidence
When children experience the great outdoors, they have the constant opportunity to improve upon their skills. Whether it’s climbing higher in a tree, spotting four new birds, throwing a rock further across the creek or field than the day before, making three free throws instead of two, or learning how to do a cartwheel, children get the chance to improve in a natural, low-pressure setting.
8. Playing Outside Integrates Exercise
Children run, jump, climb, walk, scoot, skip, leap, squat, throw, lift, and more when outside. An outdoor landscape provides nature’s perfect gym for children to experience and explore while getting much-needed movement.3,4,5
9. Outdoor Play Is Essential to Child Development
A freeforestschool.org article by Jennifer Welch explains this perfectly: “How does outdoor play support this important process in brain and body development? Experiences and movement! Repeatedly throwing rocks in the water builds physical strength and mental connections. For example, is one arm or two required to get a rock to the water? Which arm throws better or farther? Large versus small, and how that equates to how heavy a rock feels. Once throwing becomes automatic through repetition, the brain starts to make connections regarding higher-level concepts such as rock weight and splash size.”
“Next, a child might compare the differences between sticks and rocks. Sinks or floats? These are the building blocks of future learning. Each experience is a stepping stone to the next learning moment, and children need this valuable time to take in as much as the brain needs. So next time you visit the forest with a child, take a step back and watch. Let your little ones spend twenty minutes jumping in the same puddle or go back and forth over a fallen log. The body is teaching the brain, over and over again! It’s critical work.”
10. Spending Time in Nature Can Bring Peace to the Brain
A study from the University of Illinois found that children with ADHD demonstrate greater attention after a 20-minute walk in a park than after a similar walk in a downtown area or a residential neighborhood. The study, conducted by child environment and behavior researchers Andrea Faber Taylor and Frances E. Kuo, suggests that “natural settings can benefit everyone, even children (and adults) who have not been diagnosed with ADHD.”2
Playing outside has multiple benefits for children of all ages. So, when planning your week, seek out new outdoor spaces for you and your child to explore together. Sometimes, prioritizing experiences over objects is the best thing you can do for your kids. Here’s to fewer toys and more healthy, happy families!
