The Importance of Sports and Outdoor Activities for Children’s Development

Every so often, I will come across kids being glued to either their tablets or smartphones. These days, children are introduced to technologies at a very early age. Parents find it easy to hand their child a tablet or a smartphone to keep them busy or whenever they are having a tantrum. While technology may not be bad, it certainly makes the children stay in and at often times make them forget to go play outside. However, there are many advantages that children can obtain from participating in sports and outdoor activities. In this article, we will help you to understand how you - as a parent - can contribute to your child’s development. You may be wondering: So how can we get our kids up and moving about? What kind of sports they could get interested in? Lucky for you, this article answers all your questions.

Physical development

Physical development is very important for growing kids. Part of the reason of this problem is that more and more children are staying in their homes. As a result they are being deprived of the necessary exercise that they need. Youngsters participating in sports and daily outdoor activities can help to burn calories. Not only that, but everybody knows sports allow children to stay fit and healthy. Playing outdoors can help growing children to build and improve many important skills. Here is a list of sports your little troublemaker may be interested in.

Baseball and Softball

Baseball and Softball are both very well known sports. Children can learn a great deal from these two outdoor activities. They can even get started early by participating in their school’s sports teams. The benefits of playing baseball and softball:

• Helps build physical strength.
• Improves hand to eye coordination.
• Teaches balance.
• Creates discipline.
• Build teamwork skills.
• Develop leadership skills.

Soccer

Soccer is a well known sports all over the world these days. There are famous players kids idolize and look up to. It’s a fun and competitive sport to play and also to watch. The many benefits your child will get from playing soccer:

• Cardiovascular endurance.
• Increases muscle strength.
• Improves flexibility and coordination skills.
• Brings balance and helps to control weight.
• Teaches to be disciplined and builds sense of teamwork.
• Leadership and fairness attributes.
• Boosts self-esteem.

Bicycling

Every child remembers learning how to ride a bike. Starting from using training wheels or having the parents hold the back of the bicycle seat till the little tyke got the hang of it. It's a fun outdoor activity that comes with some neat benefits:

• Helps to strengthen legs.
• Improves Balance.
• Physical fitness and exercise.
• Maintains weight control.
• Teaches discipline and self esteem.
• Sense of community.
• Helps with family bonding and gives a sense of freedom.
• Environmental awareness

Walking Works Too

Walking is one of the best types of exercise that kids and also adults can get. It's especially convenient for children who don't enjoy extreme physical activity or competitive games. Walking is a very common term - it can range from a peaceful stroll through the local park to hiking up a mountain. Either way, it's a great opportunity to see the world around you, get in touch with nature, and at the same time stay in shape! Here are some of the benefits that your child and also you can get from walking:

• Helps bring balance.
• Great coordination.
• Leg strength and weight control.
• The feeling of freedom.
• Raises self-esteem.
• Creates an awareness for the environment along with family bonding.

Emotional Advancement

Children who are more active in sports have a higher chance of developing their emotional understanding. By playing with other kids, they are being able to understand the whole concept of winning and losing. Step by step, as the child grows to be more emotionally mature, they can quickly adapt to different situations and apply or control their emotions responsibly. Kids learn how to stay positive when things don’t go their way and they learn to empathize with other children as they play along. They are more involved in solving problems or learning to solve them. By playing outside with other kids, they learn and grow even more as individuals. Most parents can’t make time for their kids or they find it expensive to spend every day outside with them. But if you do find yourself with some free time and a free day here are some simple things you can do for your kids to appreciate the outdoors more: By bringing them to a park, or a children’s playground. You can go on a bike ride together or have a picnic. Invite some relatives and friends over, grab some snacks, toys and have a backyard party. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself having a wonderful time playing together with your child.

Social Advancement

Smartphones don’t and can’t teach your child how to be a teamplayer - what they do instead is to just make your child stay in and just use their focus within the borders of their smartphone or tablet screen. But outdoor activities and sports are however bringing a quite different approach to the children. As we already talked about it before, social advancement gives children to meet other children and make some friends. Not only that but being able to play as a team greatly develops the ability to learn about how your child can relate to other kids. Team sport is a perfect opportunity where children learn how to be a teamplayer. Social advancement teaches teamwork, leadership, and great communication skills.

Mental Advancement

Generally all sports require children to think on their feet. By practising some definite and on the spot skills children can become more intelligent. The most important skill a child can learn from playing outside would be the ability to think analytically. To develop analytical thinking, the child needs to be present out there where all the action is happening.They need to be able to given a chance where they can solve problems quickly. A prime example would be soccer. They need to assess a situation and plan out a move based on where their teammates are. Planning out a move based on all this information within just a matter of seconds requires some serious analytical thinking. Moreover, by letting the children to go out and play gives them a sense of opportunity to take a look around and learn about nature. Not to mention a bit of fresh air never really hurt anybody.

In Retrospect

By being active in outdoor action children become more productive. They grow up to become more versatile adults. These outdoor activities improve their physical, emotional, social, and mental health greatly. And it’s not just children who need the outdoor recreation, adults need it too. Spending an hour or two with your child outside can help parents creating stronger bonds - not to mention all the fun activities that you can do together. It is important to give children the opportunity explore the outdoors, mix with other kids, and see the world through their own eyes. Take the tablet away for a day and send them outside to play!