Tyler Homeschool

Playing outdoors, in my opinion, is essential for the mental and physical development of young children. There’s so much for small children to explore outdoors, not to mention the sunlight is very beneficial. It seems to me that they are more alert and use more of their senses than if they were inside. However, sometimes it’s hard to get outdoors every day. If you live in an apartment you might not have much space in the shared yard.

One idea is to bring a small table or a blanket out in the yard and do a craft outdoors or have a picnic. There are lots of fun Thanksgiving and Christmas crafts that involve collecting things from outside and making them into some cute decoration. Google Thanksgiving crafts and you’ll see what I’m talking about. If you have pine cones, then google thanksgiving pine cone craft, or if you have leaves, then google thanksgiving leaf craft, etc. You will find lots of fun craft ideas. 

But don’t just have a structured craft time, let them run around some, go for a walk, etc. Fortunately in Texas we have nice weather to be outdoors most of the year. We don’t get snowed in much.  One thing that we purchased for outside is a sandbox which my two year old plays in almost every day.  If you have a toddler I strongly recommend getting or making a sandbox. Lowes sells some good play sand.

We also recently purchased a playground which my husband is putting together. Those can be kind of pricey. Going to a park is lots of fun. We go to parks kind of regularly. Lately my pregnancy has me going to the bathroom often and keeping my 2 year old from touching anything in the nasty park bathroom is quite difficult. If you’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about. Really kids can have lots of fun without a playground, just exploring in the woods, and playing with sticks, etc. My son’s favorite things to play with are sticks and rocks.

I admit, sometimes I get so bored of going outside and watching him play with a stick for 30 minutes, so I bring my iphone to play on or a book to read because I know being outside is best for my son. Kids never seem to get bored of playing outside. Well, I do have a nephew that says he is bored and wants to play a Wii game inside.

For older kids I think it’s good to play ball with them, bike, or have some quality interactive play that also involves skill outside. Older kids seem to have a lot of alone time in their rooms as opposed to young children who have more interaction and play in the same room as the parent inside. My two year old seems to thrive when playing more independently outside and have more structure inside. I have to be more watchful outside and set a boundary because we have no fence in the front yard. Sometimes I use the water hose as a boundary not to cross.

I try not to overwhelm him with too many rules outside. It should be a place where he can run around more freely (within the set boundary). I hope all of the playing outside is good for him. I plan on having a few classes outside every now and then when we start structured classes.