Children are never too young to benefit from outdoor play. They need to experience all aspects of the natural world and also to develop and test their growing physical skills within it. Therefore, all early years practitioners should ensure babies and toddlers have frequent access to the outdoors, because playing outside or going for a walk in the park is not a treat, but an entitlement that practitioners should value and organise well.
In Exercising Muscles and Minds (National Early Years Network, 2000), author Marjorie Ouvry describes the natural way children learn to play in harmony with their environment and begin to use their senses to understand the confusing world around them. The importance of playing outdoors cannot be over-emphasised in this context.
But opportunities for outdoor play are being reduced rather than expanded.
During the past 15 years, the increasing use of TV and videos, coupled with deteriorating local parks and open spaces, have meant that children spend more and more time within their home or nursery.
Also, society has become preoccupied with the potential danger posed by strangers to children, and the fear of children having accidents during outside visits.
As a result of these pressures, children are missing those vital experiences and challenges that help them learn to take risks and be responsible for their actions. Lacking such experiences makes children more fearful of dangers in the outside world, it limits physical activity and encourages the spread of obesity. Babies and young children kept indoors for most of the day also become lethargic and find it harder to control their emotions. Practitioners play a key role in reversing this unhealthy trend in society and should teach parents by example how to organise sustained periods of outdoor play which ensure that children learn to exercise body and mind.
Visits and experiences
Plan a wide variety of outdoor activities for babies and toddlers throughout the year, always making sure that they are dressed suitably for the weather, and that you are there to support and engage them in communicating about what they see and do.
Ensure that you obtain parents' consent for all your planned outings.
Involve children in preparing for outings by including them in decision-making about where to go and how to get there. Encourage them to choose and pack the food that they will need to carry and let them help select and put on the right clothing.
* Use your setting's outdoor area as much as possible. Through late spring, summer and early autumn, it is usually warm enough for babies to sleep outdoors as long as they are sheltered from sun and wind, and laid flat in a large pram.
* Lie wakeful babies on blankets on their backs outdoors so that they can contemplate the movement of the leaves on trees and the clouds. Also encourage babies and toddlers to sit with you on blankets, to share books with you and to play alongside the older children.
* Create space for toddlers to have their own small planting areas where they can dig the earth and plant vegetables or flowers if they want.
Provide miniature garden tools and a wheelbarrow. Support young children's interest in digging the soil and investigating the tiny creatures they discover. Help children identify and name them, and encourage them to respect surrounding wildlife.
* Go for daily walks around the locality pointing out places of interest and engage children in conversation about the buildings, plants and transport that you see on the way.
* Go for walks to the shops. Babies and toddlers enjoy social experiences with adults and older children whom they meet. Introduce them to the objects on sale, inviting them to handle or to smell the fragrance of fruits and flowers.
* Walk to the library every week where you can borrow and share some books together.
* Take babies and toddlers swimming at the local pool. Check that they have received their first round of childhood immunisation. The earlier you introduce children to water, the quicker they will overcome any fear of it and want to learn to swim.
* Take them to children's playgrounds where they can join older children playing in the sand, crawling on the grass, and sitting on your lap going down the slide. Babies love swinging gently to and fro in safe baby swings and toddlers enjoy riding on the roundabouts.
* Visit gardens where the children can roll down sloping grass banks.
Children love the sensation of rolling over and over and will want to roll down again and again.
* Take them to botanical gardens to observe unusual plants or visit nearby garden centres.
* Take them to community centres, museums and art galleries where there are large expanses of public space to crawl over or run around. Children should be encouraged to talk about the artworks.
* Find interesting places to visit, such as fire stations and post offices where children can see what happens and what equipment is used.
* Look out for communal events in parks and gardens advertised in local papers and on the radio. There are so many celebrations that will intrigue and stimulate the senses with new smells and visual experiences.
* Make journeys on buses and trains, and point out all the interesting buildings and wildlife that you see from the windows. Toddlers also love the freedom of getting on and off train seats and always look forward to sharing the packed snacks that they have brought along. By comparison, car journeys are very restrictive for young children. Suggest they help buy your ticket at a ticket machine, or from the conductor, and encourage them to take responsibility for looking after the ticket and showing it to the bus driver or ticket inspector.
* Make the most of the changing seasons by collecting natural objects such as conkers, twigs, feathers and leaves. Children wearing warm or waterproof coats and boots love to play in puddles and stamp through piles of dry leaves. Help children build snow figures and create snow angels by lying in the snow and imprinting the shape of their arms as they flap them up and down. A trip to the seaside on a warm day can be such fun and young children never tire of playing on the beach with buckets and spades, building sandcastles and dipping their toes in the water. Young children need constant supervision when by the sea and should wear t-shirts with long sleeves plus peaked sun- hats to prevent sunburn.
Many valuable learning ex-periences for young children are free and easily accessible. Early years staff have a responsibility to make the most of what is available to extend children's interest in, and knowledge of, the environment. Time spent outdoors is always more rewarding for young children than time spent indoors because children are naturally curious and have a huge appetite for change and novelty.
Getting tired and hungry from outdoor, physical activity is a natural and desired outcome. Children look forward to the return journey after they have had a busy, physically demanding time and it is then that they most appreciate the warmth and comfort of food and rest. NW