Kirsty Early Childhood Advisor Sport Bay of Plenty

With Play in the Bay's Walk Month well underway coupled with a long dry summer we have plenty of great reasons to get out and about with our wee ones.

We have a great outdoor environment on our doorstep. From exploring the forests, mountain biking, swimming and spending time on the water; being active outdoors adds oxygen and endorphins to the blood which helps develop happy, bright and cheery children!

Be a good example to your pre-schooler – their choices will be influenced by their observations of you; so try and build exercise into your daily routine.

Get your children involved by helping you in the garden, raking up the leaves, hanging out the washing or painting the deck!

Encourage your children to challenge themselves and try new things.

Taking on challenges is an important part of learning, but the risks need to be assessable.

Using language like 'come down from there, you might hurt yourself” may cause a child to stop trying and become non adventurous. Positive language on the other hand encourages skills:

'That looks tricky – how can you do that safely?” This alerts your child the activity could be harmful if he is not careful and encourages interaction between children and adults on how to work out doing it safely.

Your child solves the problem and achieves the challenge; this builds self esteem and he will naturally want to repeat the activity again because he was successful.

Oldies are goodies!

Remember some of the games you used to play when you were young? Flying a kite, skipping (jump-rope) playing elastics and games like tug of war are great fun for all the family no matter the age!

Some more activities you can encourage using the environment:

* Bare feet outdoors for baby so she can feel the grass, sand and water

* Feeling leaves and flowers and talk about them – soft, fury, sharp etc

* Lie on your backs and watch the clouds go by and the trees moving in the wind

* Feed the ducks

* Climb a tree/roll down a hill

* Blow bubbles outside and chase them

* Jump in puddles