Do you remember? Running happy and free in nature when you were a child? Playing make-believe and hide-and-seek in the garden or in the inner courtyard of the building? Jumping on leaves, exploring rocks and spending hours just watching the bugs? Do you remember being a child?
Studies leave no room for doubt. Today, children spend far too much time on the sofa and far less than they should playing outdoors. And the consequences are there. Children are more obese, more restless and less resilient.
The top 5 benefits of playing with nature.
Playing in nature stimulates a harmonious growth of the child at all levels: emotional, cognitive and social.
"It's not with toys that they have to play, it's with materials that Nature offers", in Visão Júnior.
Playing outdoors, children become more creative.
In nature, children become little scientists and researchers. It is the perfect environment for them to learn to explore, discover, create and experiment.
Whether playing with the earth, interacting with animals or exploring plants and insects, in Nature they learn to select resources and combine them in creative and imaginative ways.
Nature is also the perfect environment for them to deal with challenges and risks through trial and error. By playing outdoors, children develop resilience, creativity and problem-solving skills.
In Nature there is less anxiety.
Playing outdoors stimulates feelings of lightness, happiness, freedom and relaxation. Children can run, jump, shout, and get their hands dirty.
It is a natural and comfortable environment for children, which creates more authenticity and therefore more confidence.
All this contributes in a sustainable way to reducing anxiety levels, propensity to obesity and sedentary lifestyles.
Children who play in nature are more sociable.
Nature encourages healthy exchanges. With plants, animals, other people and above all with other children.
Children who are more aware of their surroundings, more sensitive and more available, this is what nature also provides.
Children who play in nature are more sensory.
In nature everything is constantly changing. The colours, the smells, the sounds.
Listening to the sound of birds, smelling and touching grass, observing colours and textures that change with the seasons; all this allows children to get to know and play with their senses.
More sensory children are more observant children, who can more easily formulate an opinion or critical thinking.
Playing in nature reduces the risk of obesity.
In nature, children exercise their body and mind in a spontaneous and unconscious way.
Exploring and playing outdoors actively develops children's motor coordination, making them more aware of their body and movement.
Children who play in nature are healthier.
Finally, contact with nature encourages healthier living habits
Children naturally become more enthusiastic, curious and active.
At the same time, they become more aware of the diversity of colours and flavours and, if stimulated by their parents, more susceptible to a richer and more colourful diet.
Now that playing in Nature has again become a vivid memory of your childhood, we are sure you are eager to provide the same experiences for your children.
And AMBAR SCIENCE has some suggestions to include in the Nature Kit for the next games:
-Build a vegetable garden in the garden or balcony back home with Grow your Garden;
-Caring for and watching the grass grow with Grass;
-Plant a tree in the garden with Friends of the Forest;
-Build a Bird Feeder;
-Observing nature, insects and animals with Binoculars;
-Build a House of Plants;
Shall we play?
