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Most of my favorite memories as a child were of the unstructured play outdoors. The games of hide-in-seek in a forest of pine trees, the potions we made of mud, flowers and grass.

I’m sure we played backyard sports, or went on family hikes, but these aren’t the things I remember. It’s the unstructured time we had to explore and follow our curiosities.

And what I actually remember aren’t the specifics, but the feelings. I felt a sense of safety, reassurance, joy and belonging. A sense that this is where I was meant to be, and this is what I was meant to be doing.

Time spent in nature is an investment into our children’s health and well-being and is an invaluable gift to them.

The benefits of time outside

The research literature is full of wide-ranging benefits to children from increased exposure to the great outdoors.

Physical effects include better general health and longer night time sleep (sold!). Time outside is also a protective factor against obesity.

Cognitively, children who spend more time outdoors have higher levels of concentration, a better working memory, and better control over impulsivity.

And close proximity to green space is found to be significant in predicting better mental health and emotional adjustment for children.

The benefits of unstructured play

Alongside of this, there is ample evidence that unstructured play makes an important contribution to brain development, social skills, and language and maths skills.

Unstructured play has been associated with decreases in anxiety. My youngest daughter and I are currently journeying with anxiety (brought on by our national lockdown last year) and we have experienced first hand the positive effects of this type of play.

When she’s left to roam outside and get creative with whatever she finds, she’s more likely to fall asleep earlier and is often calmer and less likely to be worrying about the next day.

How to facilitate more unstructured play outdoors

Getting unstructured time outdoors isn’t necessarily as easy as it sounds. In between school, dance classes, homework, chores and screentime, there’s always a reason why we don’t do it.

It’s bit tricky if you are starting out too. Children who have always been given the next thing to do will possibly struggle when finally left to their own devices.

But push through their complaints of being bored because just past that is where the magic happens.

My kids have built countless box forts and fairy potions, and played for hours on the trampoline and with the animals. Their imaginations never cease to amaze me.

Here are a few ways to help them get more time outdoors;

Limit screen time

Increased access to a variety of screens for children is the biggest roadblock for most families in getting more outdoors time.

Having boundaries around screen time is pretty standard these days and we keep ours very simply via a link to our router which allows us to turn the internet off for each device in our home.

I honestly believe that screen time boundaries work best, and have the most impact, when they are done as a family. Try setting aside a whole day a week with no screens.

Lead by example

This is one of the best ways that our children learn good habits. Make it a habit to immerse yourself in unstructured ‘play’ time outside.

This might look like pottering in the garden with no real agenda, or a forest walk with no planned route.

But mostly it means paying attention to your curiosities and making way for the spontaneous.

Some of the best runs (my favourite ‘play’ activity) have been on an unplanned route for an unspecified amount of time.

Send them out for a treasure hunt

Obviously a treasure hunt is more of a structured acitivity, but the idea here is to just get them outside.

Leave them to it and wait and watch.

If your kids are anything like mine they may not stay on task! And that’s okay. Let them roam and explore, the creative free-play will flow.

Under-schedule

We have always had a guideline in our home of no more than one extra-curricular activity per term. My 7-year-old has ONE dance class per week. This ensures that she’s not over-scheduled and running from one thing to the next.

Consider swapping out one class for an afternoon exploring a local park or beach, or even your backyard.

I feel like unstructured outdoor time gets easier as kids get older and are a little more independent.

But start small. Ten minutes of this type of play outdoors most days will make a big difference.

Need more?

If you are looking for more ideas I recommend these two books on my bookshelf.

The first is a gorgeous coffee table book, 365 Nature, by Anna Carlile. It has activities from crafts like pinch pots from clay, to forest foraging for edible weeds. It’s sorted by season too. No excuses for not getting out in the winter!

The second book, Vitamin N, The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life, is by Richard Louv. Louv coined the term ‘nature-deficit disorder’ and wrote the bestselling book Last Child in the Woods.

Vitamin N is practical handbook rich in research and full of ideas and stories from all over the world.

For an online resource I love 1000 Hours Outside, a blog and resource that challenges parents to get their kids outside for 1000 hours a year (to match the average time spent on screens).

Do whatever you can to give your kids more unstructured play outdoors. They will thrive and your bond with them will be stronger.

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder… he [or she] needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in.

Rachel Carson