Children need to move, and this is obvious every time they barrel into you for a hug or seem obsessed with getting somewhere as quickly as their tiny feet can carry them. While it might seem like they're just burning off energy, they are learning a lot just by moving around.
Read on to see how time outdoors – whether they’re swinging on wooden swing sets or running around the backyard – is helping your kids learn.
Sensory Learning
When a child is stationary, they don't learn as well as when they're moving. This isn't just about keeping their attention -- it's about using all of their senses. When a child is out and about, every tiny fluttering muscle tells the child things that can't be put into words. Every time the child moves in a way they didn't plan to, they learn. This will involve some stumbling, and the occasional boo-boo will be inevitable. But even in this tiny example, the child learns that pain can be dealt with and recovered from fairly quickly. Every lesson a moving body teaches has power, because it uses every sense together as nature intended.
Sampling Experiences
Each trip outside offers a child a wealth of new experiences. With each new experience, the child develops some part of their personality that seeks out more or ignores it for something better. While there is something to be said for sitting and lying down, many of the most enjoyable experiences involve jumping, climbing, running, and going as quickly as possible. The more different types of experiences a youngster can sample early in life, the better prepared they will be later in life to take those skills further.
Interaction With Others
One of the best things about getting out and moving around is that children learn the skills of interaction. Since nothing in this world happens in a vacuum, being able to both interact with other people and with the world around them is a set of skills they need to learn. Nothing teaches a child how to interact and negotiate the world like being lively and moving through that world. Many of the best lessons happen when two or more children are moving around, sharing experiences -- maybe enjoying time on wooden swing sets -- and an environment they can look back on later in life.
Better Circulation
Good blood circulation carries more air through your child's body, including to their brain. Moving around stimulates circulation, and really gets the blood pumping. A few exciting, visceral experiences that work up a sweat help the child's brain to get plenty of air, and make learning that much easier and more intuitive. While a kid can learn sitting around, they're more likely to remember those lessons when their hearts are racing, and there's plenty going on around them.
Forming Connections Inside
Mental connections inside your child's brain form rapidly early in life, and can determine your child's entire personality and set of interests later on. The more the child moves, the more connections they form and the more they can learn about what they like and dislike. The connections inside your child's mind form at their best when they're made in the natural world, being active and experiencing something new and different for every sense.
Body Wisdom Begins
Have you ever just felt that something either wasn't right even when there was no obvious reason to think so? There is an exciting theory that is gaining ground, that not all of the personality and memories in a person's body are stored in their brain. The nervous system is extremely complex, and nerve cells all throughout the body can store insights and perceptions for life. This is called body wisdom, and even the youngest of children can begin to develop it.
At Swingset & Toy Warehouse, we believe that active kids are healthy kids. When your kids go out to play, they’re learning lessons and exploring their world. Let us help them explore with one of our wooden or vinyl swing sets.
Contact us today or visit one of our four locations in New Jersey to find the swing set that will help your kids learn and grow.
