The Importance Of Outdoor Play Time For Young Children

“In Ireland, the 2010 Heritage Wild Child poll highlighted a decrease in children’s use of wild space, woods and street play compared to their parents childhood.” (Early Childhood Ireland, 2012). This decrease is very visible in Irish life today and has been caused by a number of different factors in our modern lifestyle such as, busy work schedules, heavy traffic in streets, fear for children’s safety as well as the use of technology in children’s lives nowadays. Due to this it is even more important that outdoor learning should occur daily in the early years setting. Early years educators should try their hardest to provide outdoor play time every day for young children as they may not get this time when they are at home.

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There are many examples throughout literature that show the many benefits of outdoor play for young children, whether this outdoor play is occurring in the services garden, a local park or a playground children enjoy being outdoors and often learn better when they are outside. “Children also tend to develop a more positive attitude to learning when they are outdoors. They are usually more active, absorbed and involved, and they see a purpose in what they are doing.” (Mcmillan, 2014). There are so many different materials to explore outdoors and many different, sounds, smells and sights compared to inside the classroom. This provides a great sensory experience for the child. From the materials surrounding them such as mud, grass and tarmac to different weather, such as sun, wind and rain, there are many different things to explore in the outdoors every single day, no matter where you

It is important nowadays to teach children about healthy eating and living as there are so many different unhealthy foods available nowadays from sweets to takeaways and when many parents have busy lifestyles it can be hard for them to incorporate a healthy diet for both themselves and their children. With technology being used so frequently and at such young ages, children should be encourage even more to spend more time outdoors playing and being active than sitting still watching a screen for prolonged periods of time. According to Mcmillan (2014) “Research shows that movement and thinking skills are powerfully connected. Movement and activity encourages brain growth and improves children’s attention and their memory.” This shows that being active is not only beneficial for the child’s physical well being but also for their cognitive