The Importance of Outdoor Play

And six tips on how to prioritize it in your family's life.

Yesterday, there was a child in my magnolia tree. I heard a noise and looked up, and there he was, perched on a large horizontal branch, reaching for another one higher up. It was my own child, of course, and as I watched, he executed an impressive pull-up and climbed even higher. Then he sat, surveying his arboreal kingdom with an air of satisfaction.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day that felt like summer, and he’d just returned from school. It probably felt so good to be up in that tree. One hand stroked the magnolia’s smooth grey bark while his legs swung lazily. He didn’t notice me watching; he was utterly engrossed in the tree. I turned away so as not to disturb his play.

It's not uncommon for me to spy this child in trees. Last week, he was 25 feet up in a spruce when he called down to me with pride, “Am I more than halfway to the top?” I responded, “You are!” and left it at that. When he came down, he had to rub butter onto his hands and knees to dissolve the sap that covered them before washing with soap and water.

The Unique Quality of Outdoor Play

Few things make me happier than seeing and hearing my kids playing outside. The more time they spend out there, the more satisfied I feel, as if every second contributes to their physical and mental betterment in a way that indoor play cannot. They come back inside tired yet animated. There’s a refreshed quality to them despite the physical fatigue. They’re almost always in a good mood after a prolonged period of outdoor play (unless there was a squabble over a perceived injustice, but even that passes quickly).

I am a proponent of filling kids’ lives with as much outdoor free play as possible, but after nearly 14 years of parenting, I’ve also realized that it is hard work to make that happen. I suspect that parents in bygone decades had an easier time of it, sending their kids out the front door where they’d find dozens of other neighbourhood children roaming the streets and eager to play, where cars did not pose the existential threat that they do now, where nature was close by and easily accessible and full of inspiration.

But just because it’s harder now doesn’t mean I can give up. Children are the same as they’ve always been. They still need to run and jump, chase and roll, climb and shout as they have for millennia. They can get that through consistent, daily outdoor play time—and it’s up to me, as their parent, to ensure it happens. You could say it’s one of the biggest responsibilities in my unofficial job description as “mom.”

Often it feels like a battle. They resist and complain, citing homework and exhaustion and boredom; but I persist and maintain that none of that matters until they’ve blown off steam, burned off energy, jostled the day’s sedentariness out of their bodies. So, I have developed a number of strategies to maximize my kids’ outdoor play time.

Ice fishing in Muskoka, Ontario, while visiting grandparents, March 2023. They promised me “a big, fat salmon.” No such luck.

1. Add It to Your Routine

First is insisting on it every day. It’s not an “extra” activity to be squeezed in whenever we happen to have the time. (Who has extra time, anyway?) Rather, I think of it as a daily imperative, as fundamental as eating and doing the dishes and showering. They must spend time outside at some point between waking up in the morning and going to bed. It helps that my kids have a daily dog-walking job that gets them out and moving, no matter the weather.

2. Give Them Uninterrupted Time

Ideally, they go out for at least an hour. I realized the importance of this after reading Angela Hanscom’s wonderful book, Balanced and Barefoot, in which she (a pediatric occupational therapist) explains that children need at least 45 minutes to prepare to enter an imaginary play world, at which point the real game begins. To adults, this lead-up time seems like an absurd waste. We think, “Just get on with the game!” But it’s all a fundamental part of the game.

I had a long conversation with Lenore Skenazy, author of Free-Range Kids, about this topic while researching my own book. She described the time spent getting to the real fun as the “nutritional” part of play. “It’s the wheat germ, as opposed to the white fluffy stuff,” she said in her usual colourful manner. Kids need to be left alone to do it—and they need sufficient time for it to occur. Short, quick bursts of play don’t allow for a descent into a deep and rich imaginary world. So, don’t be afraid to implement minimum times for outdoor play. (To be clear, this deep imaginary play doesn’t always happen, but it’s a good goal to keep in mind.)

3. Embrace ‘Loose Parts’

I try to make the yard as interesting as possible. Give kids loose parts to play with so they don’t run out of stuff to do—things like shovels, buckets, sticks, bricks, pieces of wood, screws and a screwdriver, watering cans, a designated space in which to dig and make mud. Invest in toys like skateboards, scooters, skipping ropes, a used trampoline, a pogo stick, a wagon, bicycles, a slackline, a tire swing, and more. You can buy much of this second-hand; keep an eye out with garage sale season coming up.

4. Remove the Distractions

It’s easier to get kids outside if they don’t have unlimited access to devices indoors. This is a central topic in my book, so you should wait to read about it there when the book launches this summer (you can preorder now!), but it bears mentioning. One problem with devices is that they allow for immediate entry and immersion in virtual play, reducing the friction—that “wheat germ” preparation that Skenazy mentioned—that enables a kid to engage deeply and emotionally in high-quality play. Hand-held devices make distraction too easy alluring, and these quickly become the path of least resistance when a child is figuring out what to do. Ditch the devices and your child will be far more inclined to play outside.

5. Don’t Get Involved

I strive to let them be. Just as I avoided telling my son to be careful in the tall spruce tree, I consciously bite my tongue and trust in their innate ability to detect risk and adjust their behaviours. If you’re panicking, count to 30 before responding, or turn around and go back inside. If injuries happen, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. So far nothing serious has happened, apart from numerous run-ins with poison ivy.

6. Invite Other Kids

I encourage friends to come over to play. Kids love running in packs, and the presence of others makes old objects and activities acquire new vitality. They become interested in showing off possessions and tricks and games, and the hours of play pass quickly. It sounds counterintuitive, but the more kids are around the house, the more distracted and contented they become. (I just have to accept that the chaos level is substantially greater.)

My magnolia tree in bloom, May 2022. Who wouldn’t want to be up there?

Some families use tracking sheets like the “1000 Hours Outside” challenge. That number is based on the average amount of time kids spend on devices each year, trying to replace it with outdoor play time. (You can download those sheets online.) I prefer to take each day as it comes, not worrying about data and just prioritizing that play time whenever we can.

It's not easy, and some days my family fails completely at it; but the point is to keep trying, to set yourself up for success, and to have fun while you’re at it.