10 reasons why being outdoors is amazing for your children

As a child, some of my fondest memories were from being outside with my brothers and friends, playing from dawn until dusk. Making ‘rose perfume’ by stirring rose petals and other weeds in little buckets of water. Digging ponds, and filling them with wriggly tadpoles. Tending our own miniature gardens and spending long afternoons up in the treehouse. Staying out until it got dark, and roasting garden apples on the bonfire under a blanket of stars.

Over the past few decades, children’s relationship with the great outdoors and nature has changed dramatically. According to a study undertaken by the National Trust in the UK, children today spend half as much time outdoors as their parents did. Yikes.

The days of free-range childhood, where kids spent hours outside playing in local woods and at beaches, building dens, fording streams and climbing trees, have been mostly replaced by video games, television watching and organised activities such as sports and clubs. We have traded green time for screen time and it has had an impact on kids’ well-being and development. Our approach to raising children has changed too. We’ve morphed from parents who allowed our children to play largely unsupervised from dawn to dinnertime,  into ‘helicopter parents’ who are afraid to allow their children to roam free, because of perceived safety concerns from traffic and ‘stranger danger’. The distance our children stray from home on their own has shrunk by 90% since the 1970s.

The phenomenon has been termed ‘nature deficit disorder’ by Richard Louv, who wrote ‘Last Child in the Woods: Saving Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder’.  As children spend less and less of their lives in natural surroundings, “their senses narrow, physiologically and psychologically, and this reduces the richness of human experience.”

A long time ago, we ourselves were wild. Children instinctively have a wildness and deep connection to nature within them, that we do our best to civilize. And there’s the issue. We want our children to behave well, to achieve good grades at school and to secure a good job. They get ferried in the car between ballet, swimming, piano and football. But maybe we need to stand back a little, put aside the crammed schedules, and trust them to explore the outdoors. That overgrown little alley behind your house might look muddy or potentially threatening to you, but to your child it could be a place of magic.

On the days when my kids are stuck indoors or we watch some TV, they easily get cranky. On the days we wander through a forest or paddle in the sea, the kids just entertain themselves and are so happy, at one with themselves and the world. So I make a point of us going outside EVERY day. 

As a family photographer in Jersey, who has an enormous passion for nature, I can think of no better place to photograph children than the great outdoors. Not only is nature incredibly beautiful to photograph, but kids are simply happier and therefore easier to take pictures of when they are outdoors. They are themselves – carefree, wild, laughing, jumping, playing and yelling. All these things make for beautifully real moments to capture.

In this blog I have set out 10 reasons why nature is amazing for children. And I’ve speckled it with some of my favourite pictures of my daughter, enjoying the great outdoors.

1) Natural vitamin D

Children need sun to make vitamin D, to make growing bones strong and to strengthen their immune system. Just remember to bring your suncream :-)

2) Exercise

Outdoors your blithe little spirits will be running here and there, jumping up and down, climbing over this, scrambling under that. The level of activeness that being outdoors brings, means that children are physically fit, and have a smaller chance of obesity, heart problems, and diabetes.

3) Creativity

Have you ever noticed how kids seem to just amuse themselves outdoors? The way that kids play in nature has a lot less structure than most types of indoor play. This unstructured style of play also allows kids to interact meaningfully with their surroundings. They can think more freely, design their own fun and approach the world in creative ways.

4) Resilience

Yes, we want to keep our children safe, but letting them take some risks will allow children to learn to take care of themselves. Being overprotective can erode certain traits like independence, resilience, creativity and confidence. So teach them how to climb a rock, which footholds are sturdy and which are not, then gently watch from a distance. The lessons they will learn from failure are just as important as those they will learn from success.

5) Reduces stress and fatigue

Isn’t it amazing how the ‘wild’ calms a child? Being outside feels good. Children are free to explore, move about, and make noise — all delightful forms of self-expression that are often restricted indoors. In nature, children can run, jump, hop, skip, splash, climb, roll, and shout, which in turn relaxes them, reduces tension, anxiety, and restlessness.

You might also notice how nature enhances a sense of peace and often brings out nurturing qualities in children. Many energetic children slow down to dig a hole in the sand, watch the sun dip, or spend time playing with a stick in a muddy puddle. Several studies have found that exposure to nature can reduce symptoms of ADHD and anxiety. 

6) Improved immunity 

While your kids are busy frolicking outside, they might get grubby, graze their knee, or pick up a worm. This is actually a good way to build up their immune system. Children who are acquainted with dirt from a very young age, have stronger immune systems compared to children who prefer to stay indoors.

7) Sensory experience

Being outdoors is a smorgasbord for the senses (which is how much of young children’s learning takes place). Outside there are so many amazing things to see: hermit crabs scuttling under shells, blossom falling like snow, and four-leaf clovers to be found. To hear: birdsong, bees buzzing, leaves rustling in the breeze, waves crashing. To smell: sweet daffodils, rain-soaked ground, freshly cut grass. To touch: the velvety softness of a petal, a fallen feather, the bark of a tree, sand running through tiny fingers, or the squishiness of mud. There are even things to taste, like newly fallen snow or a freshly picked blackberry.

8) Responsibility

Living things die if mistreated or not taken care of properly, and entrusting a child to take care of the living parts of their environment means they’ll learn what happens when they pluck a flower and it wilts, forget to water a plant, or the achievement they will feel when they nurse an exhausted bee back to health with some sugary water. 

9) Curiosity

Nature makes your kids think. It creates a unique sense of wonder for kids that no other environment can provide. There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million. 

10) Love and respect for nature

In addition to the individual benefits gained by being connected to nature, there is a collective benefit shared by all of us. Our children are future stewards of the earth. In order to raise adults who are passionate about protecting the environment and preserving our planet, they must first develop a deep love for it. The only way to enable children to grow comfortable in nature is to open the door and let them out to explore the awe of the natural world.

I have come to realise that one of my jobs as a parent is to tap into the wide-eyed wonder that I once had for nature, so that my kids can find it for themselves. In order for their generation to grow up as stewards of the planet, they have to know what’s at stake. I want to make sure my children get dirt under their fingernails, seawater inside their wellies, and spiders in their hair -  I want to allow nature to seep inside them. I don’t want them to fear nature, I want them to embrace it.

Because little nature lovers grow into big nature lovers. Plus it's an essential investment in their health. Oh, and it’s blimmin’ lovely to photograph too!

If you would love some photos of your little explorers in the great outdoors, get in touch!