When I look back on my childhood, I spent a lot of my playtime outdoors whether that be playing in my road on my bike, making a den, going to the park. playing hide and seek or just taking my dog out for a walk. I know how important it is to get some fresh air and be active and burn off some excess energy of which children have an abundance of! That is why I try my best to take my two boys out as often as I am able to, weather permitting, because I want to encourage a love of the outdoors and for them to want to play outside more than they want to stay indoors and watch TV for example.
Sadly though, nowadays many children don’t get to enjoy the great outdoors as they once did, owing to the dangers that modern day living entails. It seems as if out children are growing up in a country where their parents played outside more than they do.
So what can be done to turn this around and encourage and nurture safe play outside the home?
Accident Claims have devised this info graphic to provide some safety tips and some statistics about the playtime behaviour of today’s children.
PRIZE DRAW
To encourage some outdoors (and indoors) play I have a horse hopper to offer one Mummy Mishaps reader
Suitable for children aged 3 years and over (children under the age of 3 should be supervised), this bouncy horse hopper will teach your child balance and co-ordination. For use indoors or outside on soft areas like grass, this hopper will be a great toy for your little one/s.
To be with a chance of winning one (worth £25) please fill in the rafflecopter form below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I was asked to post the above infographic and I agreed as I think it is a good thing to encourage outdoors play. I chose to use the horse hopper for a prize draw rather than keep it myself.
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Thank you xx
Thank you xx
Our local park because it’s so easy and we walk through most days.
love taking my boys to trentham estate local to us, huge park area & play area with a woods for conker picking 🙂
We love going to Moors Valley as there are two parks, a play trail, nature trail and the Gruffalo trail and its all free!!
Greenwich Park, a bit of a drive away from where I used to live but the park was huge. You could feed the ducks and the squirrels, play in the kids area, hire a boat on the boating lake, walk the dog or have a picnic. I loved that place and my 10 year olds first outing was there.
The marine lake at West Kirby – great for scooter and bike riding and a run on the beach @MummyFever
We love going to Padley Gorge near Grindleford, it is a lovely walk.
We love visiting the local farm. Not only is it fun to interact with the animals but it’s educational too and helps to teach the Mini Mes about animal care. There are also trikes, trampolines, slides, inflatables etc there for added outdoor play x
we love to take our granddaughter to soft play , i think she would stay there all day if she could
we take our granddaughter to soft play, i think she would stay there all day if she could
we take our 4 to the local waterpark, its got a lovely walk aorund it and a childrens play area
We love going to skegness when we visit my parents
We love to go to the mountains in Snowdonia, the boys love it there! We also go to our local park very week no matter the weather as they like to run through the trees and make a den 🙂
I like to take my girl down to Bestwood Park Lodge when we go on one of our really long walks. There’s adventure trails, a huge park, plenty of fields and animal scenery. She loves it x
Going to the park. Or to local seafront for Grayson to go on his trike x
Ps the 1 in 10 can’t ride a bike terrifying
The beach. Free fun and also suitable to visit in the hot weather or cold weather.
Our communal pool, although I’d love to take him to some woods or a decent park (no pleasing some people is there!)
My 3 year old has just discovered the skate park, she went there with her scooter today and it’s her new favourite place in the world ever!
We love the beach, it’s always a great day out (weather permitting!!)
To the beach
For walk in the countryside and woods
We love the farm, there are a couple of nice country parks that we like to visit too x
My parent’s back garden
Culzean castle, so much to see, so mush to do and tons of free space to do it in
We really like Haldon Forest or Dartmoor. Load the car up with food and outdoor toys such as bats, balls, scooters etc and head off for the day. Bliss
Local country park is next door to us. Seems like a different world only 5 mins from our front door. Saw a deer early one morning!
The local park. So nice!
Roundhay Park
@yorkshiremumof2
Our local park, to feed the ducks & run round in the playground. We’re really lucky that it’s only a 5 minute walk form the house.
Favourite outdoor place is a local country park, it has a lake to walk around, swings, slides etc and lots of things to discover, a sensory garden, statutes even games to play!
In Ireland it was Mahon Falls in London either ‘The Bunny Park’ or Kew Gardens.
we have a park near where i live
We’ve got a few favourites; the Barrage park, Barry Island and I suspect last weekend’s exploration of Porthkerry Park will be up there as well. I think Barry Island is our absolute favourite though!
I wasn’t allowed to play in the street as a child, our garden was 100ft long and 50 foot wide so we had no need anyway, but I would be playing outside all the time with my siblings, and when they got older I’d play by myself.
We go to a local farm park that has play areas inside and out too. Melody loves the owls, meerkats and the goats!
My son loves walks in the woods, even more so if it is very muddy.
The woods near us which is really lovely and has a wonderful tea room aswell!
Our favourite place is hampstead heath there’s loads of wooded areas up there and we always go exploring with the dog looking for all diffrent sorts of stuff!
The zoo, we LOVE the zoo, hehe.
Sarahleaf.lea 620@gmail.com
The park, the fresh air and all the activities are great for my son 🙂