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How to Get Your Children Outdoors (Week One)
As we head into the warmer months of spring (and summer), it’s never too early to start thinking about ways to get our children outdoors. As more and more research studies are being done regarding children, their decreasing levels of activity and their increasing levels of obesity, it’s becoming obvious that we need to ensure that our children are given the opportunities (and the tools) to get outside and play.
At PLASP, children enjoy time outdoors daily. Over next few weeks, we’ll be featuring an inexpensive outdoor activity that’s featured in the PLASP programs and can be done easily at home – in your back yard, your driveway, or the neighbourhood park. We’ll also include a statistic each day from the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card from 2012 which summarizes why outdoor play is so essential – now more than ever.
Week One – Drawing with Chalk
Active Healthy Kids Statistic #1
“In one global study, playing with friends was the single favourite pastime of kids around the world.”
Solution #1
Chalk is inexpensive and can be found at most department or dollar stores. There’s no limit either, to the uses of chalk by children – hopscotch, word games, drawings - even murals for the more ambitious. According to the Art Made Easy website, children should learn to draw for two important reasons:
1. Art helps children discover the joy of creating. We live in an age of technology, where many kids spend large amounts of time in front of computers, televisions, or video games. Their tendency is to sit and watch…today, especially, young people need opportunities to stimulate their imaginations.
2. When you help your children learn to draw, you are helping to develop his or her self-esteem and self-confidence. What a great feeling for a child to be able to say, “Look what I did!” or “I can draw that!”
By: PLASP Child Care Services