5 Ways Your Kids Can Benefit From Being Outdoors These Holidays

At Adventure Camp we have built ourselves on the motto of, ‘no kids left inside!’

Living in a city, busy with work and activities, it can be hard to find the space to let kids explore nature or find the time to do it with them. School holidays camps are an awesome way for kids to learn new things and make new friends. As parents we want our kids to be able to gain great life skills and learn to feel safe and have fun outdoors. That’s why we started Adventure Camp.

Here are 5 ways that all kids can benefit from being outdoors these school holidays.

1. Physical Health: Research shows that children who play outside are more active and have better physical health (with lower risks of obesity ). let’s face it, no kid really sits still outside.

Fun Fact: there has been studies that show the more time a child spends outside, the lower their risk of short-sightedness. Even 45 minutes of outdoor play a day can make a difference (doctors suspect this is due to the higher levels of outside light).

2. Boosts the immune system: Safe exposure to sunlight increases the body’s natural production on Vitamin D3 and it is no surprise that kids who are outside create more of this essential vitamin. Vitamin D3 is important for bone and muscle development and is beneficial to your overall health. At Adventure Camp we take sun protection very seriously, as balancing sun exposure is very important.

3. Cognitive skills: The benefits that the natural environment has on how a child’s brain works are countless and research shows that being outdoors can lead to a range of cognitive benefits for kids including;

a) Better memory

b) improvement in symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

c) improved concentration

d) better reasoning skills

It is thought that exposure to nature plays a positive role in brain development by providing children with the opportunity to take risks, discover new things, be creative, develop a sense of wonder and engage in new tasks.

4. Psychological State: Exposure to natural environments can lead to a decreased risk for problem behaviour, reduction in anger, reduced depressive symptoms, greater autonomy and a decreased risk of problem behaviour. Kids ability to regulate their own emotions is also improved through exposure to nature.

5 – Wellbeing: Having exposure to nature can also help children’s wellbeing, Studies have found that even the simple presence of nature like trees, grass and plants can help children to better cope with stress.

Being outdoors is not only beneficial for our health, it is so much fun. We believe in outdoor play so much that we have designed our holiday adventures to ensure kids try something new and have awesome fun doing it. If the above reasons are not enough to get your kids outdoors these holidays, check out our article on what we want all parents to know about Adventure Camp.