20 years ago, kids had no choice but to play outdoor and it helped them connect with nature. Fast forward 20 years later, kids hardly find it enjoyable staying let alone play outside when they can have all the fun they want watching TV and fixating all their attention on their mobile phones. Are you worried that your child is spending too much time indoors pressing their phones or watching TV? Are you looking for fun ideas they’ll also appreciate that will them better connect with nature? If you are, then today is your lucky day, because I’ll be giving you tips that’ll help your kids connect to nature.
Why should my kids connect to nature?
Asides from the fact that spending too much time on their phones isn’t healthy for them, letting your kids play outdoor can benefit them socially, physically, intellectually, and emotionally.
Intellectually, when your kids play outdoor, nature provides them with a lot of opportunities for discovery, problem-solving, was creativity.
When kids carry out activities like, running, jumping, rolling, etc., it helps them emotionally by reducing and relaxing anxiety, restlessness, and tension. Additionally, some studies have shown that exposing kids to nature can help them reduce symptoms of ADHD.
Socially, playing outdoors helps kids make new friends and provides the opportunity for kids to interact with each other. While playing they’ll learn how to work as a team and solve problems on their own.
Physical, letting your kids play outdoor helps them build strong bodies and exposes them to sunlight with provides them with vitamin D which contributes positively in building a strong immune system.
Activities that can help your kids connect with nature
Set up treasure hunts
For this fun activity, you can write down all things you want your kids to look for outside and let them find those items on their own. The satisfaction of discovering a hidden item will quickly turn into a reinforcing activity that will keep them outside searching for the items on the list.
The identify game
For this game, you’ll book that has pictures of leaves, bugs, trees, flowers, or birds in your area and go outside with the kids looking for the specific plants and creatures found in the book.
Give them tools that’ll help with discovery. You can do that by giving them gifts like magnifying lenses, shovels, and bug boxes which helps in promoting outdoor exploration. These tools also make the experience fun and foster a sense of professionalism.
Take them to an outdoor performance
These days you can easily find parks that have performances for kids and in many places those performances are free. This activity is great for kids that spend hours watching shows on Cartoon Network.
The activities written above are fun and can be carried out by small families as well as large organizations that offer childcare services. I know that running such activities and ensuring that the kids get the right amount of attention and love isn’t an easy task for large organizations because they have to also worry about things like billing, scheduling, communication, CRM systems, etc. With a childcare manager software, you’ll be able to easily handle all major operations giving you ample to show your kids all the love and attention they require while they are connecting with nature.
