Surviving Social Distancing: Our Favorite Outdoor Play Activities
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"Play is the highest form of research"
- Albert Einstein
Where better to perform research than in the great outdoors? Playing outside has so many benefits and is often overlooked as a potential solution to a variety of problems. As occupational therapy practitioners we have noted improved confidence, better attention to task, more willing participation, increased curiosity and sensory exploration and better sleep as a direct result of increased time outdoors. Sometimes, when a session is rough, we suggest playing outdoors as a change of scenery and it totally turns our sessions around. Parents have been using outdoors to curb crankiness and motivate movement in a way that does not destroy decor for centuries. Children often beg to go outdoors, even on rainy days. Here are some of our favorite outdoor toys and some activities you can do with them.
This water table is fairly small and would fit neatly in the corner of your yard or on your porch. It is the perfect height for new standers and cruisers to work on moving around the table while playing with toys. You can fill it with water as the name suggests, or you could add some shaving cream for a little different sensation. This toy can easily be used indoors as well, throw down a table cloth or shower curtain on the floor, set the table on top and you are ready for some indoor sensory play. If the table is dry inside, you could also put in rice or dry pasta. Have left over Easter grass? You could fill it with that as well. If your little one is working through bath time struggle, you could put babies or plastic animals and wash cloths in the water table so they can play bath with their babies.
Stacking cups are so much fun! As an outside toy you can hide them throughout the yard and work on scanning the yard to find them and bringing them back to a spot for stacking or nesting. You could also draw some circles in similar colors on the pavement and have your child place the cups in the matching circles. They can be used for scooping and pouring in the water table or your child can fill them with a hose or a squirt toy. You could also have them out in plain sight in the yard, but have your child complete a different animal walk to pick up each one. If you have a golf ball or ping pong ball you could hide it under one of the cups and see if your child can find where it is hiding.
Watching children (and sometimes adults) use a hula hoop is hilarious and laughter is good for everyone! Hula hoops can be used for so much more than wiggling around your waist. You can set out a few in a row and have your child jump from one to the other trying to get both feet off of the ground at the same time. You could use them to match items in your yard or garage of similar colors or have them place them over a person with similar colored clothing. (Provided that person lives in the same household to keep it social distancing safe.) Some children are small enough that they can use a hula hoop similar to a jump rope. This particular hula hoop looks like it could be a fun put together and take apart activity to encourage using hands together.
This set has so many good ideas and I like that they all came together. Cones, rings and bean bags can be used for a variety of activities. You could set up the cones and have your child walk through them or jump over them. You could have them do a ring toss either with or without encouraging them to match colors. You lie the rings on the ground and encourage your child to toss the bean bags inside the rings. You could hold a ring up and let your child try to toss a bean bag through the ring. You could simply play catch with the bean bags. So many fun combinations!
Anything that sprays water is fun for all! These foam water shooters are great for cooling off on a hot day and engaging in some fun back and forth play. They require two hands to load with water and to shoot and can be really motivating for working on some upper body strength. You could make some targets on your sidewalk with chalk and see if your child can hit the target from 1, 5 or 10 steps away. You could have them try to get the water into a bucket or the water table. You could even see if they can hit particular body parts with the water. All fun ways to work on hand eye coordination, strengthening and body awareness.
Bounce . . .bounce. . .bounce. . .who doesn't love a good bounce on a hopper ball. Hopping on these encourages use of balance reactions and builds core strength. You can also have your child grab the ball with both hands and toss it toward a target. If you have a younger child you can place the handle to the side, have him lay on his belly across the ball and lean him toward the ground to pick flowers or grass, color with chalk, or let them use their hands to walk their body off the other side. You could have them sit on top of the ball while you assist with balance and talk about the clouds or point to different objects you name,
At this point you are likely thinking, but my yard will be a mess! This box is sturdy, large and will store most of your outdoor items so they are not lying all over your yard. This can also help with the transition to inside. You might find it helpful to put pictures of each thing that belongs in the box on the inside of the lid so it is easy to identify what needs to go in it when it is time to clean up. You could even encourage clean up through having them do a different action with each thing they pick up. If you pick up chalk run to put it in. If you pick up a ring gallop to put it in. Stack the cones and then hop them to the box.
Outdoor play is so important to our overall well being promoting better moods and better rest. If your child is having difficulty participating in play either indoors or out, contact us to discuss how we can help.
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