In the winter, outdoor play is healthy
Fresh air is good and healthy for everyone, mentally and physically. Children and adults spend a lot of time in the small indoor places, superheat and bad aerate, germs and the disease transmitted very quickly. Playing outside in the fresh air reduces the chance of infection expanding in kids enjoy and benefit from playing outdoors in all activities. Everyday outdoor play burns energy. It gives children a chance to change their surroundings, balance in play and habits, and great muscular activities, such as developing motor skills. Even children who are little sick but active should go outside. When fresh air is part of the daily routine everyone will be in a better mood. Bringing kids outdoors, even in winter, can be a daily plan for healthy growing up. Clothes must be appropriate and safe for children. А very important part of obesity prevention is active outdoor play at all times of the year. It also helps to establish a lifelong pattern of healthy physical exercise.
Keep kids away from injuries
Our habits and where we live can affect the way we feel cold. Children who grow up in very warm homes adapt to lower temperatures longer. Organizing safe outdoor games in cold weather include:
- You need to make sure that the children are trained appropriately; use layers of clothing that can be easily worn and removed. The air between the layers helps keep the kid warm.
- When the ground is frozen and everything is slippery from ice and / or snow, it is important to check the outdoor areas and equipment for child safety. During warmer weather, such spaces are adapted to the safety of children but can be unsafe in winter.
Plan activities that take advantage of cold weather:
- Use snow to build Snowman.
- Use colored water in spray bottles to color snow.
- Snowfall for climbing and sliding activities.
Keep an eye out for signs of frostbite
- Look for skin whiter than your surroundings.
- Ask your child about pain, followed by numbness.
If you suspect a child has frostbite
- Rub frostbitten areas.
- With your hands or an armpit, you can warm the pain area.
- For more severe frostbite, place the area in warm (not hot) water until color returns.
- Serve a warm soup.
Look on for signs of hypothermia (when your body loses heat faster than you can produce it and your body temperature becomes very low):
- Cold hands and feet
- Swollen face
- Pale skin
- Shaking
[box] Keep children moving in cold weather to prevent frostbite and hypothermia. [/box]
Do physical exercise
Your children have not lost their energy or aspiration to play because it is cold outside. Physical activity gives your immune system the strength for the whole day. A stronger immune system leads to less disease and less use of antibiotics. Exercise for children is good for a healthy and properly developing physical body. Fresh and clean air makes the muscles, lungs, blood vessels feed on oxygen and enhance the work of the whole body.
Stimulate imagination on the snow
The winter also supplies a diversity of ways to stimulate your imagination through play. Kids like to build things, such as a snow castle with tunnels in the backyard or on the playground. You can go for a walk-in “wilderness” and look for birds and other woodland creatures. Children are less and less using their imaginations because they are busy sitting on the couch, looking at the phone, playing games at the computer, watching television…
Outdoor activities:
WALK AND TALK. Together you can take a walk outside and talk about memories of snow, funny winter adventures, listen to the crackle of snow under your boots, just enjoy it.
SHAKE A STICK. Kids love to hit branches that are full of snow. Snow falling down a waterfall provides dramatic fun and introduces children to cause and effect physics.
MESSAGES IN SNOW. Kids love to write messages, dragging their feet through the snow to make letters and words like “I love you!”, They also like to draw a big heart with owls in it.
SNOW SCULPTURES. Those who love snow, snowballs, and Snowmen are favorites winter activities. Kids could make snow creatures, like bears, dogs, rabbits, and cats. They can put up three snowballs and they have a caterpillar or train. Let them decorate sculptures with an object from the basements and kitchen, allow to be creative.
PAINTING SNOW. Fill in the spray bottle with water and a large dose of food coloring. List as many different bottles and colors as you choose. Let kids spray paint the snow landscape. Painting snow sculptures with a spray bottle is fun and the kids love it. Plastic eye drops can be used for painting with colored water.
TRUCK PLAY. Let the kids use jumbo toy bulldozers and dump trucks to plow roads in the yard. Provide old shoeboxes and markers so they can create houses to set along their plowed roads. Plastic people, toy cars, and animals can populate their town. Fir tree branches stuck in the snow represent trees.
SNOW RAINBOW. With several large sheets pieces of cellophane or plastic covers of different colored, you can create magic. As kids hold up the colored sheets, the sun shines through them casting lovely color onto the palette of snow. Kids can overlap two colors to create a third.
SNOW LINE DESIGNS. Bring out and give the kids the small sand rakes that make a straight, zigzag, or curvy drawing in the sand. Homemade rakes can be made from cardboard.
SNOW PRINTS. To make prints in the snow you need to give the kids different types of objects. Big blocks create lines of squares. Old boots or rubber sandals with interesting tread designs can be used for printing. Give your children a chance to come up with the idea themselves.
BUBBLES. Watch how differently bubbles react in the cold compared to warm weather. Kids’ warm breath makes the bubbles lighter than the cold air around them, so they rise.)
PLAY WOLF. Go with kids in the in deep snow, and imagine that wolves travel in a single line. The leader makes tracks that all the others step into. The rest of them conserve energy. Children can do the same. They can take turns being the wolf pack leader. The others have to follow stepping exactly into the leader’s tracks.
STEAM ENGINE STATION. Children by puffing out their warm breath create smoke in the cold air make a steam engine статион. They can build train rails throughout the yard and play interesting outdoor activities.
LOOK AT THE CLOSE TO SNOW CRYSTAL. You need to find black paper for the kids to catch snowflakes on. When caught, inspect them with a magnifying glass.
SNOW SHADOWS. On a sunny day, walk in the snow and you will notice all the shadows in the snow. Inspire children to make their shadows of different shapes.
MAKE A SNOW MEASURE. Use a wide-open plastic jar, such as mayonnaise salad jars. Place the jar on flat ground and mark it with inches on the side. After the snow has stopped, get out and see how many inches have fallen.
SNOW CAVES. After a good snow, let kids use child-sized snow shovels to build caves into the sides of snowdrifts. To make it comfortable, ensure that the floor of the cave is covered.
SHORT TUNNEL. When the snow has piled up, children can make underground short tunnels for maneuvering. Do not make long tunnels as snow can fall on children. For long tunnels, every few feet make a large hole for the head that cuts through the top of the tunnel.
ANGELS. Children need to lie on their backs in the snow and button their arms up and down and open and close their feet to create angel wings.
Sources: California Childcare Health Program, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing
Stranger in the Woods by Carl R. Sams II and Jean Stoick. (Milford, MI: Carl R. Sams II Photography, 1999)
