Last Updated on January 15, 2023 by Faiza Murtaza
Today, an average child spends about seven hours in front of the television or laptop instead of engaging themselves in Outdoor Play Area like playing or exercising. This not only causes severe deficiency in the child’s physical and mental development but also makes them less open to society.
The number of reasons why you must have an outdoor play area in your garden or backyard is endless. Here are five main reasons why having a little playground behind your house is very important for your children.
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1. Improves motor skills
It comes as no surprise that kids who spend their time playing outdoors have much sharper cognitive and motor skills. They are faster, cleverer, and can easily balance themselves.
Playing outdoors every day challenges your child’s muscles and bones, which helps them to develop these organs early in life.
They learn how to quickly catch a ball, swim fast, or crawl under bushes. Improved motor skills also encourage your children to be more confident and adaptable to whichever surroundings they face.
2. Lowers BMI
Back in the 1980s, only 7% of American children suffered from obesity. Now, in the 2010s, almost one in three children suffer from this terrible disease. The reason? Lesser time playing outdoors.
Kids who love playing outdoors are energetic, healthy, and burn much more calories than kids who spend all their time watching Netflix at home.
Many studies have shown results where the more you keep your children outdoors, the lesser their BMI becomes. A low BMI automatically means a healthier body and mind.
3. Improves overall physical health
As mentioned earlier, playing outdoors can greatly improve your child’s physical health. A healthy child will have the risk of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases, or even asthma.
Exposure to sunlight also uplifts your child’s moos since a hormone named melatonin is secreted under the influence of sunlight. This helps to create a positive vibe all around your child and they associate playing outdoors with joy and fun.
4. Encourages love for the environment
Let’s say your child isn’t much of a cricketer or an athlete but loves to spend an hour or so outdoors every day.
You don’t necessarily have to push them in the direction of sports; small things like bird-watching, collecting pebbles from the backyard, or recognizing the names of various flowers and trees are also amazing ways for your child’s development.
When you install an outdoor play area, they spend more time in it and appreciate the environment and the need to conserve it. They witness beautiful sunsets, small animals playing with each other, and so much more.
This naturally imbibes a love for nature in them. So they become more aware and start preserving plants and animals.
5. Makes them understand peer-to-peer relationships
When you have a small outdoor play area for your little ones, you can easily invite your neighbours and their kids and ask them to play with you too.
This improves communication between your children and your neighbours’ children. Improved peer-to-peer communication is extremely essential as it instils values like sharing, working together as a team, and showing leadership skills. All these qualities will later be very important in your child’s life when they learn to navigate the real world.
Playing together also encourages active imagination (for example, a treasure hunt) and lots of fun. This doesn’t mean there won’t be fights. But your children will learn how to sort out those fights with a positive mindset.
You don’t need to have any fancy game equipment in your outdoor play area. A small cubby house (you can buy cubby houses online too), a swing set, and an inflatable pool is more than enough for starters. Encourage your kids to go out and play as much as possible. Not only will you get some time to spend outdoors bonding with them but you will also feel like a kid yourself and get a chance to go back to your childhood!
Over to you…
If you wish to see your child developing physically, mentally, and emotionally, it is very necessary for you to arrange for a small outdoor play area for them.
Constantly sitting in front of the television or phone does no good. While a little bit of screen time is fun, too much of it can be detrimental. So talk to a builder and turn your backyard into a playground as soon as possible!
Apart from that if you want to know about Gift Ideas for Sports Lovers then please visit our Sport page
