Playful Parenting Tip #6 - Take Play Outdoors

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This week's Playful Parenting Tip is to take your kids outside for unstructured play.  


Our outdoor adventures started early with our daughter because being outdoors was one of the few ways to calm our screaming baby girl.  She was outside so much, her second word was moon. She can be engrossed for hours, under the shade of a grove of oak trees with just sticks and pebbles for toys.  Miss E relishes digging in our vegetable beds burying her toy animals.  She barrels down our hilly sidewalks with her tricycle.  She will lay across a big boulder savoring it's cool sensation.  She has dug holes in sand big enough to fit a small girl. These are the memories that I cherish with our daughter, and I hope that she carries some of these memories into her adulthood.


My memories of outdoor play are more vivid than any other memory I have from childhood, and my most fond outdoor memory was playing Little House in the Prarie when we went camping by the stream. 


I asked some of my favorite bloggers for kids, "What was your favorite outdoor play memory from your childhood."  You can't help but realize how important outdoor play is for kids when you read their answers alongside my tips for playing outdoors.  


Make Playing Outdoors a Daily Routine
I feel like the very fabric of my childhood memories is woven out of the feel of dirt under my feet and the smells of the changing seasons.  For me "childhood play" and "being outside" were synonymous. - Creative with Kids

Bring Dramatic Play Outdoors



My friend and I made up shows and played them for our friends.  We danced and practiced a lot, and we were so proud at the end.  - Everything and Nothing: Activities for Preschool

During recess, my girlfriends and I would play act and perform the songs from the movie, Grease.  We made up steps, knew all the words, and practiced every single day.  We took our performances very seriously.  - Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

We would re-enact favorite books like The Boxcar Children or fairytales on our outdoor "stage" - the patio. - Toddler Approved

My cousins and I would play in the playhouse my dad built for me.  We would play there everyday pretending to be anything and everything.  - Mama Mia's Heart2Heart

Use The Whole Body Outdoors



When I climbed trees, I would climb really high.  I loved looked down at everything.  As a ten year old, it made me feel free.  - Growing a Jeweled Rose

Roller skating shows to Madonna and Michael Jackson in the garage.  - Busy Kids = Happy Mom

We lived in a cul de sac in New Mexico, so I could roller skate pretty much year round.  I'd pretend I was at ice skating camp, in a skating competition, or figure skating. I LOVED roller skating. - The Iowa Farmer's Wife

Running through the sprinklers on a hot day. - Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds

We used to have a huge snow mountain, and I'd have my german shepherd jump on my "crazy carpet" and come down with me.  She also loved climbing the mountain on the opposite side of me , and when I would get to the top, she would jump over my head.  - Glittering Muffins

Playing street games like Lagori.  We would run around with old cycle tires and have tire races.  - Putti Prapancha

I loved riding my bike across the mud flats and going across all the bumpy parts.  Also, balancing myself as I walked along a log that went across a stream.  - Puddles and Gumboots

Riding on my big wheel bike in the backyard and swinging on our swing. - Mess for Less

Spend Hours at a Time Outdoors



I spent many hours playing jacks on our front porch.  I tagged along after my two older brothers riding bikes for very long distances, climbing hills, skating, swimming, sledding, catching fireflies, and shooting off fireworks.  Those were the good ol' days - totally unsupervised in a small Kansas town. - Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents

We were lucky enough to spend six weeks every summer in the Italian countryside where we pretty much lived outside and just coming back for meals!  We camped out under sheet tents, hunted snakes, picked plums and roasted them in an outdoor fire, made mud pies, and made up performances for the adults. - The Imagination Tree

My brother and I would ride off on our bikes with our friends and not come back until lunchtime, and sometimes not even then when we brought a lunch. We would come back covered in mud for tea.  We had made dens, climbed trees, caught frogs and newts, fished, and rode bikes around the village. - Rainy Day Mum

I remember heading off through the meadows and to Bluebell Wood, just a small group of friends, with no adults around. - Nurture Store

We played for hours in the most unique sandbox of all time - an old fish pond my parents had drained and filled with sand. - Imagination Soup

Always being up in the trees was so quiet and peaceful.  If I found the perfect limb, I could recline and spend the whole day reading.  Dilly-Dali Art

I was never inside.  I was out climbing trees, building forts, and setting traps for the neighborhood bullies.  My parents owned a pickup truck, and we would load the bed of the truck with blankets and sleep outside. - Sense of Wonder

I rode my banana seat bike everyday, all day.  My parents added a basket to the front, so I could carry my toys, and I always had a friend on the back riding along with me. - Teach Preschool

We grew up on a farm, and we had a daisy bush as a big as a small car, and if we crawled inside, it was hollow, like a giant igloo.  We played there so often we wore a deep crater in the dirt underneath, and I loved lying there in the shade looking up through the flowers or reading books. - A Little Learning for Two

I grew up in Maine, so we were outdoors all the time even during tough winter months, building igloos, sledding for what seemed like miles, making snow angels, and participating in snowball fights. - Carrots are Orange

Build and Create Outdoors



Running water through the tunnels we dug in the sandbox.  -Hands on as We Grow

My siblings and I would turn our outdoor spaces into rooms and houses. One big tree branch was mine and another was my sister's.  The area under a large forsythia bush became a house which we divided into four rooms.  We'd spend hours designing, furnishing with rocks and sticks, playing, and "visiting". - Come Together Kids

My sister, our best friends, and I would make dens out of fallen branches in the woods behind our house.   They were quite fabulous, and we would hold secret meetings there.  - Curly Birds

We tried to make a campfire like real American Indians, and we made it in secret.  When we finally managed to have something that resembled a fire, it started to rain.  - AngeliqueFelix.com - The Magic of Play

For the first seven years of my life, we lived in a small brick house on my grandfather's farm.  I liked to "help" him by building dams in the furrows he carefully dug out for irrigation.  He was incredibly patient with me and my not-very-helpful desire to be involved in every aspect of farming work.  - Mama Smiles

We would spend hours upon hours in the woods behind our house.  One January, I carried our Christmas tree out to our "play house", a clear spot in the trees.  I had borrowed an electrical outlet from my Papa.  I spent all day hacking on some poor tree with screw driver  to get that outlet to stick in the tree.  I was so proud, and sap covered, when I finally got it.  Beaming with pride, I called the cousins to watch me light it.  I was disappointed when the lights didn't come on! - Kids Stuff World

Make Discoveries Outdoors



When we spent part of the summer at my grandparents' farm, my grandmother made us frog catching nets.  My sister and I would circle the pond for hours trying to catch frogs in our nets. - JDaniel4's Mom

My favorite thing was to flip over rocks and find bugs. - No Time for Flashcards

If we ever had snow, I loved looking for animal footprints in the snow. -  Red Ted Art

When I was elementary age, I played by the lake collecting turtles, frogs, and snakes. -  Play Away Online

How can you provide opportunities for your kids to create similar memories of playing outdoors?

Next week's Playful Parenting Tip will be about spending quality time playing with your child.