Outdoors Rain or Shine
There are many important reasons for taking children outdoors, whatever the weather (providing no safety hazards such as dramatic wind conditions and storms present themselves). Here are just a few:
- Some research shows that children learn more when in natural light.
- There is enormous opportunity for learning. Weather, trees, clouds, wind, rain, seasons, fire engines, garbage trucks, squirrels, rocks, ice patches, and insects are all there. It's a world of wonders for children, who these days are inside for greater and greater lengths of time. Schools bear increasing responsibility for making sure children experience what's out there.
- American children are increasingly overweight, partly due to lack of exercise. The habit of regular gross-motor activity is, like other good habits, best established in childhood.
- To properly develop coordination and muscles, children need practice. Active, vigorous play develops a wide range of motor-coordination skills.
- Most children are healthier with regular outside play. A combination of exercise and fresh air refreshes children's spirits and bodies. Keep in mind that children with asthma require modifications of the "outdoors-every day" routine.
- Routine itself makes children's lives more manageable to them. Make going out a certainty rather than an uncertainty.
- The play space should be as hospitable to teachers as it is to children. Nature is healing to everyone-increase its presence in your play area. As a species, we evolved in nature and seem "hard-wired" to respond positively to it. Gardens, bushes, trees, small animals, and insects (butterflies and ants at least) interest, please, and restore us,
- Finally, where will the next generation of environmentally aware adults come from if today's children don't experience the outdoor environment?