With the current mild winter we are currently encountering, we don’t see any children Grant Park. Children benefit from being outside during all the seasons. They just need to be dressed appropriately.

With the current mild winter we are currently encountering, we don’t see any children Grant Park. Children benefit from being outside during all the seasons. They just need to be dressed appropriately.

It is okay to be concerned about outdoor play. This generation of children is at risk for a Vitamin D deficiency, obesity, and “nature deficit disorder.” Spending time outdoors in all seasons is important for children. The outdoors is a place to study both the big and the small as children watch the clouds blowing across the sky and see an ant carrying a crumb home. Intimate experiences such as these build a reverence for the earth and a practice of stewardship for our world.

Most often it is the adults who are unmotivated to go outside, believing the myth that children will get sick. In actuality, children get sick less by being in the fresh air than in overheated indoor spaces. Germs spread much more rapidly in an enclosed environment.

Research has proven that getting in touch with nature has many benefits for children, such as better reading comprehension skills, improved focus and concentration. The outdoors provides a large container for hyperactive children, those with sensory issues and a space for all children where possibilities are limitless. In addition, children have fewer mental health problems when they spend time outdoors — less anxiety, less stress, less aggression, and less depression.

After being in school all day (some schools have cut recess and physical education time to increase instructional time) kids are looking for ways to expend energy and decompress. Spending time outdoors offers opportunities to meet old friends and make new ones.

We believe that unstructured outdoor playtime is essential for healthy development: physical, intellectual, social and emotional.

We say, “Bundle up and go outside already!”

Salt — Dr. Shoshanah Findling, certified school counselor, associate professor of Education at Touro College and on the board of directors Five Towns Early Learning Center.

Pepper — Pepper Robinson, executive director of Five Towns Early Learning Center, early childhood consultant.