My fondest childhood memories involve running around in my backyard without a care in the world.  My brother and I would make up silly games like ‘King of the Jungle’ and have contests over who could spin around in circles for longer.  There is something invaluable about having free time in nature.

Sadly, our children are missing this experience.  The little time they have outdoors is spent in soccer practice and other organized sports.  Even worse, many children in our country don’t have access to the outdoors at all.  Kids these days spend most of their free time watching TV and playing video games.  Why play tennis outside when you can play Wii Fit tennis from the comfort of your living room?  Kids today don’t know what they are missing.

Unstructured outdoor play is very important for kids.  The “No Child Left Inside” movement gained momentum after the release of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder,” a 2005 book by Richard Louv.  In the book, Louv explains that exposure to and participation in nature is crucial to healthy mental and physical development.

Children learn to understand their world through unstructured play.  And some studies indicate that exposure to nature helps children with ADHD by increasing attention span.

Outdoor play is also associated with lower obesity rates.  Kids burn more energy when left alone in nature than in most other settings.  Interestingly, the rise in obesity has coincided with a dramatic increase in participation among American children in organized sports, Louv wrote.  This makes sense.  During soccer practice, there are times when the kids sit still while the coach shows them a drill.  Then they get up and take turns practicing it.  A large amount of time is spent watching and waiting.  And organized sports are time-limited.  When the hour is up, practice is over.

There is a big difference between organized sports and music lessons and unstructured play, Louv writes. Not that there’s anything wrong with soccer practice or swimming lessons, but they aren’t a replacement for the wandering, running, climbing and exploring play that comes naturally to children.

One reason our children spend more time indoors?  Outside no longer seems safe.  Parents don’t let their kids play outside unsupervised due to fears of kidnapping.  I myself am guilty of these fears.  My mom would let us play in our backyard while she worked inside the house.  I am too nervous for that!  So my children can only play outside when someone is watching them.

The facts, however, don’t support the growing fears.  In reality, there were half as many child abductions in 2007 than in 1970, and most of those were perpetrated not by strangers, but by people who knew the child.  We need to get over these fears or at least make it a priority to spend time watching our child run around outside.

What can parents do to encourage their kids to play outside?  Spend time outside themselves!  Let your children see you enjoying nature.  And spend time as a family outdoors.  Go for a walk in a park or have a picnic dinner in your backyard.  My family loves to go for hikes in the woods or at the local botanical gardens. Most Sundays, we pick a spot and walk, run or bike around.  Not only are we all getting physical activity but we are bonding at the same time. Nothing brings us closer than a day spent together in nature.

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Tags: outdoors nature play sports child children kid kids obesity

This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 9:41 am and is filed under Child Obesity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.