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Outdoor play has a whole host of benefits for both children and adults. More and more, science is discovering new ways that being outside and playing outside is beneficial.
Outdoor play equipment is not strictly necessary, but helpful. Here are some fun outdoor play products to help stimulate their imaginations and build their bodies.
How Ourdoor Play Helps Children’s Development
Outdoor play has many benefits for children and their development. Motor skills-both fine and gross, muscle tone, creativity and imagination, spacial and body awareness, problem solving and executive function skills, immune systems, skeletal systems, mood and stress levels, vitamin d levels. vestibular systems and many more things are developed by outdoor play.
Sand/Water Tables
Sand and water play offer a sensory experience. As noted by Kidsclubcare.au, water and sand play:
Enhances motor skills
Improves language and speech
Enhances social and emotional awareness
Introduces concepts of mathematics and science
Sparks creativity
Obstacle Courses
Obstacle courses help:
Muscle strength
Motor planning (being able to move the body with appropriate timing and sequencing to perform movement with control)
Motor learning (being able to change physical performance from past experience)
Postural control (being able to stabilize the head and trunk so that the limbs can move)
Sensory processing (being able to register, interpret and respond to sensory information in the child’s surrounding and their own body)
Body awareness
Balance
Co-ordination
Executive functioning (reasoning and thinking skills)
Encourage bilateral integration, which simply means the ability to use both sides of the body in a controlled and coordinated manner.
Give kids the opportunity for tactile play when they’re climbing under and over obstacles
Enhance proprioception (knowing where your limbs are without looking)
Challenges the vestibular system; an important sensory system that tells you where your head is in space! Moving through obstacles aids with development of this essential skill.
MoovBaby.com/au
Zip Lines and Swings
Swinging helps many systems develop.
The sensory system is developed, inner ear balance is strengthened, nerves are calmed, anxiety lessened, motor skills are developed, and it stimulates brain development.
Climbing
Climbing develops our spatial awareness, motor skills, & memory
Students who climb show higher academic performance
Kids solve problems by climbing at an early age
When kids climb together, they learn lifelong social skills
https://www.luckeyclimbers.com/
Balance
Core strength, spacial awareness, body awareness, and obviously balance are developed through balance play.
Outdoor Play Sets
Swing sets combine a lot of the elements above and are a fun addition to the backyard.
Misc Outdoor Play
Some more fun play equipment and pass times to get kids outside and exploring.
Many of these things can be worked into your family bucket lists for spring and summer, and are especially handy if you are participating in the 1,000 hours outside challenge.
