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Help Your Child Get Better Sleep!
Here are 10 practical suggestions for incorporating outdoor play into your child’s life:
1. Build outdoor time into your schedule – no need to make this a heavy-duty “to do” added to an already long list. Outdoor time can include occasional walks to school, help with home gardening, a surprise picnic dinner, and any array of convenient outings.
2. Think morning time – a little time outdoors in the morning will help to set a child’s sleep clock for the rest of the day. Walks to school, or morning activities on weekends and summer days can make a significant sleep quality difference.
3. Look at your school’s recess schedule – talk to principals and teachers about the value of outdoor morning recess for children. While many schools have been cutting out recess for more classroom time, but some studies show that lack of routine outdoor time and exercise can hurt a child’s academic performance and ability to focus.
4. Day care – check in with your day care provider to suggest some daily outdoor time be built into the schedule.
5. After-school play dates – parents are often apprehensive about simply sending their children out to roam the neighborhood. A simple remedy is to arrange joint outdoor time with other parents and children. Or parents can rotate and take turns being a neighborhood outdoor-time supervisor.
6. Kid-friendly backyards – it doesn’t take much to make the yard more fun for kids – some bird feeders, a garden, play equipment, outdoor toys, and more.
7. Weekend outings – if the weekdays are too crammed with work, practices, lessons, tutoring, etc., try using the weekends to make up some lost ground.
8. Find wonderful “nature” places — National Wildlife Federation offers a, free NatureFind online tool and map for finding great outdoor places, parks and events.
9. Find activities – NWF also has a great list of fun activities for families and children through their Be Out There website and Activity Finder.
10. Outdoor adventures – a couple of times a year it’s fun to go on a more extensive outdoor adventure such as canoe trip, an overnight campout or a challenging hike. Such activities also help a child learn more about the natural world.