Where do your kids play? 
How Fit Are Your Kids?
With back to school in full swing across the continent some of us may be realizing that our kids are returning not quite as tanned and fit as we thought they might. In fact, the average North American kid seems to have a stronger knowledge of the summer’s most popular TV shows than stronger biceps and quads.
While the average North American child may return to school sporting a little more around the midriff, it doesn’t mean we need to lose hope. As parents we can combat childhood obesity in one very simple way–and that is through active, outdoor play. All year long.
An easy way to start nurturing that love of the outdoors and active play is through local playgrounds–an outdoor structure designed specifically for kids to climb, jump, swing, slide, and move around upon. Playgrounds not only help create physically healthy kids, but also promote mental health and developmental skills.
5 Ways Playgrounds Create Healthier Kids
1. Make Friends!
Playgrounds allow children to meet other neighbourhood kids and make new friends. When friends are at the local playground it encourages other kids to play there more often. In fact, Pediatrics recently reported that kids are more likely to be active if they have active friends.
2. Developmental perks!
Playground play is social which allows kids to engage in social play and receive immediate feedback on their actions and behaviours. Vital for healthy child development.
3. Motor skills!
Playing actively outdoors is one of the best ways to combat childhood obesity. And playground play is naturally active. As well, kids who play on irregular play surfaces tend to have better motor fitness.
4. Promotes mental health!
Children who play outdoors have reduced depression, and anxiety, both sadly on the rise among children. Playgrounds are a fun way for kids to spend a lot of time outdoors.
5. Builds safer neighbourhoods!
Playgrounds can act as a social hub for a neighbourhood, bringing families outdoors, allowing neighbours to meet one another, and to look out for one another. And if you feel safe sending your kids out to play, they are going to play more often and are less likely to have obesity-related health issues.
What do you think? Shall we meet up in the playground this fall and build us some physically healthy individuals?
[divider]
Can playgrounds create healthier kids? http://t.co/oS0sgk2p
— Jean Oram (@KidsPlay) September 4, 2012
[divider]
During the summer holidays, does the average North American child:
a) Get in better physical health?
b) Get in worse physical health?
c) Stay about the same in terms of physical health?
Surprisingly and sadly, it is b. The average child gets in worse physical shape during the summer holidays. Yikes! Kids these days, eh?
What can we do about Children’s Physical Health During the Summer Holidays?
KaBOOM!, a nonprofit organization that has been working for almost two decades to build playgrounds (over 2000 to date!) across Canada and the US, has a fun summer challenge to help get us all outdoors and playing in playgrounds. (You may have read my previous post on reseeding playgrounds with kids to benefit kids, neighbourhoods, and more.) I was able to interview Kerala Taylor at KaBOOM! (the lady who dreamed up this wonderful summer challenge) to find out a more about KaBOOM! and why this organization feels strongly about playgrounds and neighbourhood play.
Interview with Kerala Taylor of KaBOOM!
It’s All Kid’s Play/Jean: Why does KaBOOM! feel playgrounds are important to children, families, and communities?
KaBOOM!/Kerala: A good playground exercises a child’s mind as well as his/her body, and kids learn valuable social skills as they navigate the equipment together. In a day and age where 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese and kids spend an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of a screen, it’s absolutely crucial that we give them the time and space to play outdoors. A good playground is not only for kids, either! It can serve as an essential community hub where neighbors can gather and socialize. Playgrounds help make for greener cities; better schools; safer neighborhoods; and healthier, happier, and smarter children.
Jean: What do you hope your Summer Playground Challenge–visiting as many playgrounds as you can from July 2-August 12th–will accomplish?
Kerala: The Playground Challenge gives families a chance to play together, be active, explore their communities, and meet new neighbors. As they map the playgrounds they visit, they help other parents in their community identify great places to play. They also help us at KaBOOM! identify “play deserts” – that is, the areas where more playgrounds need to be built. This is a crucial first step in working toward our vision of a playground within walking distance of every child.
Jean: I love the idea of an app to help people find playgrounds–an especially great tool for traveling families. (I know I’ll be using this app a lot to find playgrounds when we travel.) Tell us a little more about the app and how it fits into the challenge. Do you need a smart phone to participate?
Kerala: Our new Tag! app will make it a breeze for Playground Challenge participants to photograph the playgrounds they visit, and, in the process, automatically input the GIS data so the playground can be added to our Map of Play. For every playground you photograph with the Tag! app you’ll be entered to win great prizes in a biweekly drawing.
Participation is much easier with a smart phone, but we’ll offer ways for folks without smart phones to take part as well.
Jean: What are some prizes participants can win in your Summer Playground Challenge? Other than the gift of the great outdoors, physical activity, and new friends?
Kerala: We’ll be offering $500 in great gift cards every other week – stay tuned for more details! And the most gung-ho Playground Challengers will have a chance to win one of our three Grand Prizes – a trip for two to Washington, DC.
Jean: I asked my daughter, age 9, who is an avid playground lover who is helping me test and add playgrounds to the Android beta Playground app, what she was curious about when it came to playgrounds. She asked, “How do you plan out a playground and decide what to put in it? Where do you find the materials?” Can you help us answer what makes a good playground?
Kerala: That’s a great question! We’re actually pretty unhappy with the general state of playgrounds today. As we’ve become increasingly litigious and paranoid about safety issues, we seem to have squeezed nearly every element of challenge and risk from our playgrounds, resulting in uninspiring, sterile play environments. Part of what we grapple with is how to add more innovation and “danger” to our playgrounds.
As part of our process, we always host a Design Day where we ask for designs from the playground experts – that is, the kids! We try to incorporate elements from their drawings into the final playground designs. After all, they’re the ones who will be playing on the playground, so they should have some input in the process.
Jean: That sounds like a ton of fun! I can’t wait for July so I can join the challenge. Last one to the top of the slide is “it” for Grounders!
A special thank you to Kerala from KaBOOM!.
I hope to see you out on the playground this summer as part of KaBOOM’s playground challenge. For more information on how you can join this challenge, visit their website. As well, I’ll be posting more about KaBOOM!’s app and challenge as the summer rolls on. Play on.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Over to you… One of my favourite things to play on the playground as a kid was “Monster.” (It was like tag but on the monkey bars. The the “it” player was a monster who couldn’t climb the monkey bars and had to stay on the ground and try to tag us monkeys up on the bars.) How about you? What was your favourite thing about the playground as a kid?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Kerala Taylor manages online content and outreach for KaBOOM!. She is also co-founder of Glimpse.org, author of How Things Break, and a blogger for BabyCenter.com. A proud new mama, she’ll be making sure her daughter gets plenty of healthy, unstructured, outdoor play.
Why would she do that?
Think about the playground in your neighbourhood. If this playground were always empty, would you allow your children to go play there alone? You might think twice. However, if that playground were always buzzing with kids, you would probably be more likely to allow your child(ren) to venture there on their own because there is safety in numbers, right? Right.
Lenore’s idea is that if we take our kids to the playground as a purposeful “event” and do so all together, it ups the chances that we will run into other parents taking their kids to the park, feel better about leaving them there, and our kids, seeing that there are others playing in the park, are more likely to want to stay and enjoy themselves. Right? Right.
We are reseeding playgrounds with children.
Lenore Skenazy isn’t saying if our kids are really little to leave them there on their own. But the bigger kids, yes. (Such as age 9 and up.)
Plant the seed. Give it some water and sunlight, and let it grow. (Quit poking at it!)
Guess what happens when we leave our kids to play unscripted, unscheduled, and unsupervised? They gain independence, learn how to solve their own problems, help one another, and most of all… play. Today, when, for the first time since the 1940s, our kids are less likely to live as long as their parents and obesity is practically a contagious epidemic, it is even more important to let our children play outside and to play freely when they are out there. Why? Because children who engage in free play outdoors are less likely to become overweight.
Where does all this bubble-wrapping of our kids stem from? It stems from us. In today’s world we hear about every child abduction and every hurt suffered by children around the globe. It feels like a lot. And it feels like it is getting worse when in fact it is getting better.
The world is a safer place now than it was when we were children.
Did that surprise you? Well, it’s true. Today is a safer place for our kids and yet we protect them as if there were predators around every corner. (I know, I know, I am perfectly capable of imagining all sorts of awful, fearful things myself!) But it’s unhealthy. Our fears are keeping our kids indoors. Our fears are keeping them from playing in an active and free way. Our fears are causing them health problems.
When we hover over (bubble wrap) our children they don’t gain independence.
Kids need to be outside. Kids need to learn independence.
So today, take your kids to the playground and leave them there. Even if you have to sit on the curb half a block away and sneak peeks back at them playing just to make sure they are still okay. (Or even send them with a walkie talkie so they can check in every half an hour.) Our neighbourhood’s playground is literally right outside our window and I would be lying to say I don’t peek out that window when my eldest is out there playing. (Don’t worry, I check on your kids too.)
Playground moms build a community.
On the flip side, my past presence in the park is one of the things that makes other moms feel safe letting their kids go to the playground unattended. I am a part of our neighbourhood, yet I am not a busybody. I am what you might call a playground mom. Many of the kids know my eldest and know who I am. I’ve provided water, bathroom breaks, and bandaids. And as my daughter grows older and gains more independence, I spend less and less time in the playground (although more and more again as Jr. gets his feet under him).
Never have I had to chase off any bad guys, call an ambulance, nor break up any fights. I’ve never even had to walk an injured kid home. These kids look out for each other and have developed some surprising agility and skills. Man, those kids have built up some death-defying climbing acts over the years! But it is because they are able. And they are able because they have learned their own personal limits. They also look out for each other like you wouldn’t believe.
How to reseed playgrounds with children.
If you are still worried about leaving your kids in the park alone, hang out with them for awhile. Let them play while you keep your nose buried in a book. Act like you aren’t there. Let them solve their own problems, make their own friends, make their own games. Keep your lips shut and let them go as much as you are able to. Slowly you will be able to give them more independence and eventually, stay home while they play.
One thing I’ve noticed that makes us moms feel safe in leaving our kids unattended in a local park is the neighbourhood community. If you don’t have one–build one! Talk to other parents. Get to know the neighbours and their kids. Drink your coffee on the front step. Walk the neighbourhood, wave, and say hi.
These simple things make a neighbourhood and community, and when you have a neighbourhood and people know you and know your kids you feel safer letting your kids out. Right? Right.
Flip side to you being out and about? You are helping other moms and dads let their kids roam. Why? Because they see you out there and know other people are out there looking out for their kids. We need to do this together.
Take action.
So, what are we going to do today? We’re going to take our kids to the park to engage in some old-fashioned, independence-building free play. And then what are we going to do? We’re going to chat with some of the other parents. And then what? We’re going to leave our kids at the park!
And they are going to love it.
The official “event” is today, Saturday, May 19th at 10AM. (But I think we should do it every day!)
It starts with us. Go to it.
Enjoy!
Want to read more on this? Check out Time’s article as well as Lenore Skenazy’s blog.
P.S. If you want to learn more about the health benefits of free outdoor free play for kids, sign up for my newsletter (it’s free and all about fun and play!) which will be all about outdoor play in this coming edition. It’ll include ways to get outdoors and get those kids playing and having a blast!
[divider]
Connect with Jean on Google+.
