How Does Time In Nature Benefit Children?

In today's busy world, most, if not all, parents want their children to grow up physically active, fit, healthy and happy. For those ambitions to flourish, adults must allocate time to assist children in developing positive behaviour habits, a good range of social skills, personal initiative and a positive mental attitude towards their health and wellness.

No doubt one of the greatest gifts parents and educators can give to their children is to encourage them to play freely outdoors, something the older generations all used to do daily. Still, as a society and the generations change, together with their social standing, it has become less of a priority and less prominent to play outside as much as we should.

Today, our world is awash with technology, and children's need to learn new skills becomes ever more critical with technology advances. As a result, many children tend to stay indoors and spend time playing video games, watching the television, and using smartphones and tablets to communicate with others and the wider world.

Due to the increased access to technology and the possible fears of the world becoming less safe. Many parents don't allow their children the freedom they themselves had as children. Playing alone outside becomes less accessible, especially if it is not close to the family home. As a result, there has been an influx of before and after school clubs that prioritise wrap-around care for parents working long hours and sometimes offering more child-friendly activities that can take place in the outdoors.

To help promote the use of the outdoors and increase opportunities for youngsters. An old fashioned nature walk is an excellent way to help stimulate a child's appreciation for nature and the natural world found all around them. After all, it is free, and under the supervision of adults, parents, or teachers, there are endless learning opportunities presented within a suitable outdoor environment.

Going for a nature walk with children provides numerous alternatives for you all to unwind, find balance in your life and become more grounded and further in tune with your senses. Such opportunities enable all participants to focus freely on a range of beneficial natural learning strategies. Like observing your surroundings a little more, noting down what interesting things you see, hear, smell or feel.

It can also encourage young minds to develop their creative imagination and provide interesting links to things they already know, which can become vital aid when encouraging children to build their own confidence levels and develop this through links to the natural world.

To spend more time outside, enjoy it and feel free is invigorating for the mind-body and soul. To feel the texture of rocks, barks found on the trees, and hear the sound of dried up leaves, crunching underfoot are all essential, and by encouraging these opportunities thought important, heartwarming experiences. Curious young minds can thrive and be the best they can be.

The Importance Of Nature For Children

By spending more time outdoors and being surrounded by nature, children will inevitably enjoy the experience of being out in a natural environment and enjoying the fresh air and freedom. These positive additions will help enhance the children's minds, their senses and support their overall health and well-being.

Playing outside should be an integral part of a child's development and a vital component in strengthening a child's emotional, intellectual, physical and social skills. These factors should become an intrinsic part of a child's development through my experiences of working as a teacher and outdoor educator.

Nature Is Important In Intellectual Improvement

The learning potential found within our natural world may often be viewed as vast and ever-changing—the outdoor learning environment provides huge positives and increases the potential for all learners.

Children are naturally curious about their surroundings and possess intrinsic qualities to learn about our world rather like young scientists. Given a chance, children love exploring the world around them and are curious about learning new skills transferable in other situations. Observing a wide range of new colours, discovering new scents, observing the sights, sounds, and unique textures of a natural space are incredibly important for their development.

Our Natural Environment Enhances Emotional Development

When spending time outdoors, it feels great. It indeed feels tremendous, and children continually have a chance to explore, wander and interact with other children freely in a glorious outdoor setting. These opportunities are exciting self-expressive acts that often can sometimes be restricted due to children spending too much time in an indoor environment.

In a natural setting, children can feel free and lose their inhibitions. They can follow their instinct by jumping, climbing, running, making noise, etc., activities all children can follow, and in turn, this can promote high levels of relaxation and reduce levels of added stress and regulate anxious moments. So much so, many scientists around the world have studied the benefits of playing in the outdoors, and they have discovered that playing outside begins to calm children who suffer from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, autism and behaviour disorders.

Also, nature begins to regulate your body and mind and stimulates a peaceful state and usually enhances children's nurturing behaviour, together with their appreciation of the words around them.

The Outdoors Enables Social Interaction

Playing freely in an outdoor setting, children may get more opportunities to interact with their classmates in a way that differs from time spent in the classroom. In a school, teachers can integrate group work and collaboration into the lesson to respond to, but it often feels controlled and often limited. In a natural environment, children may play in solitude or connect with others and learn how to share and solve problems as they go along. Most activities are achievable and can be further developed around a collaborative approach that supports and builds on skills like resilience, proactiveness and aids communication.

Nature allows children to collaborate freely with others by creating games and rules as there are no set instructions or set boundaries. In school, children can still make their own rules and solve problems, but often they are close to the class teacher or other grownups.

When playing outside, tumultuous children might learn quickly to calm down, regulate their actions and become gentler and more supportive towards others during the majority of there interactions. Furthermore, they may learn how to become more emphatic and develop skills to listen and focus on a friend needing help and support.

Nature And Physical Fitness

Our natural is full of fresh air, it is invigorating, and it provides innumerable opportunities for children to engage in physical and sensory activities. Being physically active helps with a child's overall fitness levels, and helps support a strong body and a healthy mind. Children exposed to plenty of sunlight means that Vitamin D in their bodies becomes regulated and enhanced. Vitamin D has a wealth of health benefits, which include the development of a robust immune system.

In a natural environment, children become far more physically active, which might help burn calories, support a healthy balanced diet and enhance overall fitness. Activities can be wide-ranging, fun, leading to a much more positive outlook for what life might bring in the years to come.

Tip: It is essential to develop activities that allow children to have more ownership of their learning, build on this, and develop new skills to help them in later life. By taking risks and learning from the outcomes, understanding remains new, exciting and fun!

In Conclusion

I could highlight many different ways in which Nature can benefit children. As someone who has spent the majority of my spare time in the outdoors, I can see those benefits first hand.

Despite me mentioning that the world is awash with technology, it is also filled with many inspiring people and initiatives who are actively promoting how beneficial the outdoors can be for young learners.

Like most things in life, it is all there for us to utilise and the only way we will found out how useful it is, is by getting outside and making the most of what you find. If this is done on a regular basis then I’m convinced that this pattern will bring about change and influence children’s lives in a very positive way.