For children, play is hugely important. Playing enough can increase the development of both fine and gross motor skills, as well as stimulate brain development in general. Playing promotes creativity, as well as physical wellness. Without play, children do not have as much opportunity to explore and to grow, as well as important components of such like forming friendships and developing problem solving skills.
A daycare playground is the perfect place to play. The ideal daycare playground is not only suitable for children of a variety of ages, but filled with enriching activities, such as playground equipment like playground climbing walls. Horse spring riders are also popular items found as part of any outdoor playground equipment, as well as implementations such as swings and slides. All of these combined create and enriching experience for children of many different ages and backgrounds.
Playgrounds, such as custom playgrounds, elementary school playgrounds, and the daycare playground, have been popular for a long time. In fact, the first play ground in the United States was built nearly one hundred and fifty years ago – one hundred and thirty years ago, to be exact. It was originally built in Boston, but playgrounds have spread all over the United States, found in cities, suburbs, and small towns alike. Playgrounds will range in size and construction, but playgrounds can be found both near and far. Throughout the entirety of the city of Chicago alone, there are at least three hundred playgrounds, and more that are currently in development.
This is a good thing, because playgrounds have been found to have a positive impact on the health of children in the area if they are used with regularity. Physical activity is hugely important for children. It is crucial for brain development (such as the development of fine motor skills and gross motor skills) but it is also important for physical health. As many of us are all too aware, obesity is a crisis among the American people, and children are not exempt. Less than forty five percent of all kids living in the United States get the recommended amount of exercise, which only just sixty minutes of moderate exercise. Promoting play is one way to get this exercise in, and playground use is a great way to get it.
Recess has long been a time for elementary school aged children to get out into the outdoors and play on a playground, from a daycare playground to an elementary school playground to simply the playground in a local park. Unfortunately, recess is only included as part of the curriculum in just over seventy percent of schools in the United States. While this is still the majority of elementary schools, recess and time for physical activity and play should still be a priority for children who are between the ages of six and eleven.
Play is hugely important for children, especially those who are still in intensive periods of brain development (before the age of six, when fine motor skills and gross motor skills tend to become, to an extent, solidified). It is hugely important to give them the outlets for play, such as a daycare playground to a preschool outdoor playground or even an elementary school playground. Play is important for physical wellness as well, such as reducing rates of obesity. Though sixty minutes may seem like a lot of time for a child to exercise per day, it is really not if children are given time to play on playgrounds, either as a part of their school day or even outside of it (though ideally, both).