Today our children are surrounded by tech and gadgets right from their childhood. It is one of the biggest reasons kids spend more time indoors than outdoors. The outdoor playing time is significantly lower than your children's time in front of their TVs or smartphones.

Most parents today ignore the significance of playing outside for children, and that's why their kids spend most of their time indoors.

Here we will discuss some of the best benefits of playing outside for children.

Top 9 benefits of playing outside for children

Children playing outside benefits their body, mind, and emotions in several ways. Below are 9 different ways children can benefit from playing outside:

1. Become physically fit and strong

Kids today are lazier than they used to be and most kids are not very strong. One of the main reasons behind it is that kids do not get enough exercise. Playing outside can give your kids the exercise they need to strengthen their muscles and bones. It is because when a kid plays outside, he is lifting things, carrying things, running, jumping, and doing all sorts of physical exercise.

Additionally, playing under the sun can help their body become efficient with Vitamin D, strengthening the bones. However, remember to use all the protection like sunscreen and a hat.

2. Better sensory skills

Your children's next benefit from playing outside is improving their sensory skills. The following are the sensory skills that get improvement when kids play outside:

• Sight
• Smell
• Touch
• Hearing
• Taste

From distant vision to experiencing better touch and hearing senses, your kids can be sharp at playing games. Smelling things like flowers can also improve the senses of taste and smell. On the contrary, when your kid is at home, he may only sharpen his close vision and hearing senses.

3. Great social development

Social and Emotional development in a kid is necessary because these things help kids when they grow through different phases of their life. When you send your kids to play outdoors in an unstructured way, they can communicate better with others and develop positive behavioral skills.

It is usually because kids interact with new people and have to make real-time decisions based on the circumstances. Most importantly, your kids can develop organizational skills and cooperation in their behavior which are essential qualities in professional life.

4. Less stress and more happiness

Children today have stress and anxiety in the early stages of their life. There is no wonder that most of the time, those kids have these issues and stay most of the time indoors. Playing outside has many benefits, and one of those benefits is that going close to nature and playing in outdoor light can stimulate the pineal gland.

It keeps the immune system strong and elevates the mood. So, kids who play outside can have better immunity, a good mood, and live a happy life.

5. Better development of athletic abilities

While one cannot guarantee that playing outside will improve your children's athletic abilities, there are much higher chances of this happening when we compare kids who stay indoors and those who have a daily outdoor playing habit.

It is because when children play outdoors, they have better freedom to move around as they want. So, kids can run faster, climb things, and jump far, and all of these things are not possible to do indoors.

6. Children can learn new things

Keeping your kids indoors means that you are restricting them from learning a lot of new things. When kids get the freedom to play outdoors, they experience a lot of new behaviors, movements, concepts, and other things.

Thus, kids are more likely to learn about those physically when they can experience things. When your child knows a lot about plants and gardens, he may perform better in school just because he already knows some things, which may create a spark to learn more.

7. Development of healthier sleep habits

Humans sleep well when they are tired. In such circumstances, humans can fall asleep faster than at regular times and have much better sleep. The same goes true when humans do not face any stress or depression.

The thing about playing outdoors is that nature relieves stress and depression, while getting tired from physical activity can help your kid sleep faster. Making a routine of playing outside means enabling your kids to develop healthy sleep habits, which will be extremely beneficial in their future.

8. Reduction in screen time

One of the biggest issues this generation faces is a lot of screen time. Hours of screen time are not considered an issue by most people, but it is a very critical issue, especially for kids. One benefit of making your kids attracted to the outdoor games and activities is that you will be reducing their screen time.

This way, your kid will not spend much time in front of the TV or playing all sorts of digital games. Reduction in their screen time can, in turn, bring tons of other health benefits for your kid.

9. Fewer chances of getting obese

The last benefit we will discuss here is related to obesity, which is also a huge health issue these days. Most people get diseases because they are obese. One of the major reasons behind obesity is being lazy and less physically active.

Making your kids play outside and developing it as a habit in their life may help them stay fit all their life. Although it cannot be guaranteed that the kid will not get obese, physical activity significantly reduces the chances of getting obese.

Final Remarks:

While these were some of the best ways playing outside can benefit your kids, there are lots more. So, if you want your kids to be mentally and physically healthy at every stage of life, then you must develop the habit of playing outside. Even playing in an interval of 10 minutes will be good for kids, but you need to ensure that the kid follows this routine. The way your kids play outside and who they play with can be different but make sure that your kids get some outdoor playing time.

Image by Kramarz from Pixabay