This is the first installment of Bennett’s new blog series, "Summer Shorts,” inspired by the summer season: sunny and breezy; a picnic of thoughtful articles to give you some things to think about & do & leave you plenty of time to get back outside and revel.
Get Outside & Play!
· Outdoor play has an extraordinary, positive effect on children. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) notes that time outdoors promotes better sleep at night due to exposure to natural light, physical activity, and stress reduction.
· Outdoor play promotes overall health by giving children a chance to enjoy the sheer pleasure of physical activity in a non-competitive setting. Running, jumping, climbing, and throwing things help them develop their gross motor skills, including agility, balance, and coordination.
· Playing outside with peers in an unstructured setting, supports the development of social and emotional skills such as collaboration, empathy, turn-taking, self-control, problem solving and appropriate risk-taking.
· Studies have indicated that children who spend time in unstructured outdoor play with peers are more likely to get along well with others.
· As all parents know, children are natural explorers; being outside offers them a host of opportunities for discovery and immersion in the natural world. Research highlights a further benefit: children are more attentive in the classroom when they have daily unstructured play.
· Outdoor play (when it’s not raining) offers access to the “sunshine vitamin,” vitamin D, which our bodies produce during sun exposure and is essential to strong bones and teeth.
· It is a universal truth that being outdoors in the sunshine improves mood.
· There are no known adverse side effects of outdoor play (maybe a skinned knee or some bumps & bruises here & there).
I hope you enjoyed the article & might go outside with a ball & have a catch with someone.
By Annemiek Young
Annemiek Young, former Bennett Education Consultant, Director of Private Client Relations Emeritus, and good friend , is a regular contributor to our blog.
Over the years, Bennett International Education Consultancyhas worked with hundreds of corporations across the globe, many of them Fortune 500 companies, providing domestic and international school advisement & placement services - preschool through university - to the dependents of relocating employees. In addition to education placement, our team provides customized consulting for corporations with a range of education issues: education policy writing & benchmarking, tuition studies, group move advisement & planning, and remote education solutions.