Playing is so important for children. Play is an essential way of learning, and different types of play have different benefits. From helping children to develop empathy, to keeping their bodies physically healthy, getting children away from screens and playing is sometimes easier said than done.
Of course, there is a place for screens and there are many educational and fun games online for kids, but nothing beats using the imagination in a role play game ort getting outdoors and running around. In the winter, extracting kids from screens can be particularly difficult as the weather is less accommodating, but here are some of the things that you can do that may help entice kids out into the great outdoors…
Go Foraging and Start an Art Project – A brilliant way to get kids out and about is to start a fun project, and with Christmas coming up, you can do some crafts with them to create gifts and decorations for the house and for family too.
Go to the woods and look for sticks, pinecones and other festive bits and bobs which you can then use to create unique crafts, such as wreaths or even stick them to picture frames for a festive photo!
Create a Playground in the Garden – If you have a garden, make it enticing to the kids by getting a professional like this playgrounds Cheltenham based company greenfieldsltd.co.uk/services/playgrounds-and-parks to create a playground that kids won’t be able to resist whatever the weather! Having garden toys and games makes it more fun and easily accessible too.
Get them Into Nature and Gardening – Something that is great at any time of the year is to get kids interested and involved in the natural world. Whether they want to start up their own flower bed or vegetable patch or help to care for the wild animals over the winter by making bug houses and bird feeding stations, this is a good way to get them busy outside and engaged with nature.
Playing Team Sports – There are lots of sports clubs for kids that they can enjoy throughout the winter. As well as getting exercise, team sports also help to build up social skills and teamwork too. Have a look for local kid’s football clubs or Rugby Clubs.