"Why children should be playing outside"
"Activity Equipment"
[ "Whychildren should be playing outside?Humansnever evolved to sit around and complete their chores. From foragingto growing crops, we always toiled our way through adversities tosurvive. Even the merchants used to travel long distances to sell orbuy their products. It is only after the advancement in technologiesthat we learned to sit and earn our bread and butter. The digitalrevolution has made us more and more prone to sitting about the fourwalls of our room for longer periods. This obsession of ours with thedigital world has led to an increase of inactiveness in ourgeneration. According to Wikipedia, more than thirty per cent of theadult population of the UK is obese and more than eight millionsuffer from heart ailments. The toll that our inactive lives take onour bodies goes beyond the usual definition of diseases. At the sametime, outdoor playing has been linked to various benefitsHealthybodyThemere act of walking involves movement of multiple muscles of legs andhands. The movement of muscles strengthens them and makes them morestable. Playing also improves our blood circulation, making ourorgans perform better. The amalgamation of many many componentsinvolved in physical activity, make our body perform its task moresmoothly and efficiently;SocialiseOutdoorplaying generally involves more than one person. Playing in groupsmakes children learn the importance of coordinating with their fellowbeings. The games are generally played with certain predefined rules,which teaches children the importance of fair play. Children make newfriends and share their stories and experiencesCreativeItis not uncommon for children to make games of their own. Sometimesthey enact scenes from the books they have read or are reading. Mostof the games require assigning roles to one another and creating aworld of their own. All these things add up in the long run, makingkids creative and sharp-witted. Handling;playingequipment;efficientlyand using them as per our requirement also keeps our brain occupied.StrongmetabolismPlayingoutside engages all our muscles, tissues and organs. Suchparticipation from our organs makes them use their stored energy. Thetissues and organs, thus, work very efficiently to use all thenutrients of the food we eat. When our bodies process the food we eatso methodically, we get all the nutrients from our food without anywastageBetterimmune systemWhenour body encounters any antigen, it kicks starts a mechanism toremove it and at the same time keeps a track of it for any futureattacks. Now, this innate trait of our body keeps deteriorating as weage. Several studies have found that children who get exposed toa limited amount of dust or filthy environment, have better immunesystems than other children.Sharpensour brainThebrain uses twenty per cent of the oxygen in our blood. Playing outsidemakes our heart beats faster, hence complementing our heart inaccomplishing such an arduous task. Receiving a proper supply ofoxygen makes our brain work more efficiently. Children while usingdifferent;playingequipment,;makedifferent playing objects, making their brain never sit idle.StrongerbodyPhysicalexercise makes our muscles work harder. All this working breaks ourmuscles, hence stimulating a response from our body to mend thatbroken muscle. The mended muscle is generally stronger than thebroken one. These strong muscles help us prevent injuries and make usmore agile and flexible.Themere purpose of our existence should not be just living. We have beenblessed with bodies that have stood the test of time. We havesurvived ice age and wilderness not just to sit about and squanderour gift. All the comforts of the world with a weak body is simplynot a bargain worth a single penny. Everything comes with a pricetag, laziness comes with a big one" ]