Kamp at Pate Park in Buffalo!
On July 8, 2008 the Texas Agrilife Extension Service in Leon County
hosted an opportunity for local youth to get out doors and see what
there is to do and have fun right in our local community. The delights
of the outdoors are among the deepest, most passionate joys of
childhood, however increasing demands on parents working outside of the
home have resulted in growing numbers of children with less time to play
under adult supervision in their neighborhoods or in their yards.
Instead, they are spending more time behind locked doors watching
television, playing video and computer games, and as recent studies have
shown, growing obese. Other children often have afternoon schedules full
of structured activities, including music, dance instruction, drama
classes, and tennis lessons.
It is a widely held view that unstructured physical play is a
developmentally appropriate outlet for reducing stress in children’s
lives, and research shows that physical activity improves children’s
attentiveness and decreases restlessness. Following are a few reasons
why as parents we should support outdoor play time.
1. Play is an active form of learning that unites the mind, body,
and spirit. Until at least the age of nine, children’s learning occurs
best when the whole self is involved.
2. Play reduces the tension that often comes with having to achieve
or needing to learn. In play, adults do not interfere and children
relax.
3. Children express and work out emotional aspects of everyday
experiences through unstructured play.
4. Children permitted to play freely with peers develop skills for
seeing things through another person’s point of view--cooperating,
helping, sharing, and solving problems.
5. The development of children’s perceptual abilities may suffer
when so much of their experience is through television, computers,
books, work-sheets, and media that require only two senses. The senses
of smell, touch, and taste, and the sense of motion through space are
powerful modes of learning.
6. Children who are less restricted in their access to the outdoors
gain competence in moving through the larger world. Developmentally,
they should gain the ability to navigate their immediate environs (in
safety) and lay the foundation for the courage that will enable them
eventually to lead their own lives.
Our society has become increasingly complex, but there remains a need
for every child to feel the sun and wind on his cheek and engage in
self-paced play. Children’s attempts to make their way across monkey
bars, negotiate the hopscotch course, play jacks, or toss a football
require intricate behaviors of planning, balance, and strength--traits
we want to encourage in children. Ignoring the developmental functions
of unstructured outdoor play denies children the opportunity to expand
their imaginations beyond the constraints of the classroom. Extension
programs serve of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race,
color, sex, religion, disability, or national origin. The Texas A&M
University System, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County
Commissioners Courts of Texas Cooperating.
Pic Caption:
Texas Agrilife Extension Service Intern Matthew Townsend leads the
youth in an activity.
Tommy Neyland, CEA-Ag
Texas Agrilife Extension Service
