Playing outside in green spaces is good for motor skills, concentration and health, as scientific research has shown. Nevertheless, outdoor play is in steep decline. Fifteen percent of children never play outside at all (Kantar Public research commissioned by Jantje Beton), and during the winter months, children play outside more than fifty percent less than in summer (Mulier Institute research). Almost half of all children spend barely five hours a week outside during the winter months.
Successful trial
For this reason, IVN Nature Education and childcare organisation Humankind joined forces and developed the ‘Heart of Winter’ outdoor play programme. This programme, packed with winter activities and outdoor games, was piloted at Humankind locations during the past three winters. Due to its great success, it is now being offered free of charge to all day-care centres and out-of-school care centres in the Netherlands and beyond, so that all children in childcare can benefit from it.
“Going outside in winter is an extra challenge. It is cold and wet, which raises the threshold. But of course it is very healthy,” explains Marijke Koekkoek, Manager of Pedagogy and Quality at HumanKind, about the programme. “That is why we deliberately chose activities that everyone enjoys, such as playing with the wind, painting in the snow, cooking winter dishes and telling stories around a campfire. The message is: going outside is fun.”
Snowball effect
Vincent van der Veen, programme manager for Children and Nature at IVN Nature Education, fully agrees. “Unfortunately, children are spending more and more time indoors, often behind a screen. That is quite a sad observation, because playing outside is so much fun and is so good for their development. We are therefore very pleased with this campaign. It would be wonderful if it created a snowball effect and even more childcare locations joined in.”