In today’s technologically driven world kids play equipment is one of the best ways to get them off the television or computer and out into the sun. It can be hard to compete with the vast amount of media available to children in this modern day and age. With computer technology becoming as integrated into the world as it is a responsible parent cannot stop a child from learning how to utilize this tool. However the child must learn balance. Going outside to a child can seem unappealing, our homes are built for comfort and the child has been sheltered from the harsh world for most of its infant life. However supplying entertaining kids play equipment such as slides or jungle gyms in the backyard can be a fresh new experience for the children and can teach them skills they will love to use the rest of their lives.

There are all kinds of kids play equipment on the market, either in stores around the world or conveniently also on the Internet. A simple Google search can give an individual hundreds of cost friendly options to equip any backyard for any kind of child. There are different visual styles so a parent can appeal to a special interest of the child with genre specific kids play equipment. As time has gone on safety has become the most important aspect of all modern day play equipment however supervising a child while playing is essential to the safety of the child. Even a bed can become harmful when energy levels get too high. However once a child gets used to a set up in the backyard they will feel more comfortable relaxing and playing safe.

Health issues arise more often these days that can be linked to a lack of physical activity outside. This is due to habits developed in early childhood, making sure children like to play outside or at least spend time outside is an essential part of raising a child. Becoming a shut in is unhealthy and can be harmful to a person later in life, setting up a backyard with kids play equipment can be the simplest of steps to ensure a long happy healthy life of any child.

There are new technological experts focused in entertainment and safety when designing kids play equipment and it is a guaranteed way to get the children outside and active. Being outside and active is also essential to an individuals communication skills, it is outside where they will meet other people and interact with other children. If video games and cartoons are a child’s only outlet for social development they will be hindered drastically in life. Taking the time to develop play habits outside for a child can save their life in many ways. Always think about the future and the reactions of ones actions. Making a child love to go outside can help them to understand the very meaning of their lives.

By: David Patullo

About the Author:

Children are the gift of God. It is important that they are happy and have many different activities to enjoy, so that they grow healthy and strong. Keeping children engaged with adventure, excitement and challenge is very important to provide balance to their lives. Schools provide education to children and also to a certain extent enable children to enjoy different activities like sports, debates and community service. Education is a very important of a kids life and provides the foundation for his or her future. But equally important is physical and mental health which can be made possible with doing sports, paying in playgrounds or performing different activities that interest the kid.

Playgrounds provide a host of activities for children. Most neighborhoods have their own parks in which there are playgrounds. Schools have playgrounds as well and kids of all ages love to play here. Playgrounds have different kinds of activities that go on in the vicinity. For example one part of the playground may have the fields in which different games are played for eg. soccer, baseball, basketball etc. Another part of the playground may house the Library. Yet another may have a dog park where people come to give exercise to their pets. The most attractive part of the playground for kids is the equipment area, where they can have fun on different kinds of structures.

Modern playgrounds provide different kids of play equipment like the slide, see saw, jungle gym, slide, sandbox etc. There may also be different play houses and mazes. These help kids build strength, flexibility and co-ordination. Play structures allow kids to use their creativity and enjoy moving in them. Safety is extremely important to make sure the kid is protected and avoids falling down and injuring himself. Playscapes have also provide for natural play experience for kids in a natural setting.

Playgrounds help kids play with different kids and share common experiences. Parents set up play dates for their kids with other kids of the same age and take their kids to play in the park. This is a great way for kids to socialize and get to know each other. In Australia cubby houses became very popular with kids. It is also called a wendy house. The cubby houses or “cubbies” were historically built by children. These were built from scrap materials found in gardens or wastelands. These were not very permanent structures and lasted for only one holiday season at times. But safety became a concern and resulted in the creation fully built units or play structures in backyards. Sometimes kids may get more adventurous and build Treehouses as well. Playgrounds are very popular with kids and provide them with activity that they can cherish and enjoy.

By: Alvaro Buckley

About the Author:

Children today are spending more time in front of the television and Xbox than going outside and playing games. There is plenty to do outside. With plenty of games and activities you can do outside, television and game consoles are obsolete. However, many children in today’s society are still playing games on systems and watching their cartoons. Parents are always searching for games for kids that will keep their attention long enough to do some good. 5 get outside and play games for kids are:

1. Tag – This is a simple get outside and play game for children. The basis of this game is so easy, even a 3 year old understands this game. Simply choose who is “it” through another decision game and everyone else runs away. The one who is “it” runs around and tries to tag another kid. Once tagged, the person who got tagged is “it”.

2. Sidewalk Chalk – This is a fun activity that can only be played outside. Drawing on the sidewalk is always fun. Through this activity there are possibilities to add a bunch of games. You can play 4 square or hopscotch. You can play others with the addition of sidewalk chalk.

3. Red Rover – This game is when you get a group of people to one side of a field and a group on the other side. The object of this game is for one group to get all the other groups people in their group. The little chant of “Red rovers, red rover, send (someone’s name) right over”. Through this game, you not only get outside, you get exercise too.

4. Treasure Hunt – This outside activity can be quite adventurous. You can have this treasure hunt around the neighborhood or simply around the front yard. You can have items like a shovel, dirt, toothpaste, etc. It can be fun to have a treasure hunt.

5. Frisbee Football – This came is simple. Using a Frisbee, you play football. The rules are simple too. One player has the Frisbee. He can take 3 steps and then has to throw the Frisbee to another player on his team. To score you need to throw the Frisbee through the goal lines and have someone catch it.

Children have different levels of fun. When tag is not for an older kid, there is always Frisbee football. There are more get outside and play games for children. Children need to get outside and play because it is healthy for them to do instead of being drones so the television or Xbox.

By: Barry Lycka

About the Author:

Disproportionate gaming can stunt a child’s social development, but you should not overlook the benefit your child can get from kids computer games.

Young kids live in a world that has always had the Internet. Children these days will use computers in discipline quite often; with even before, they begin school, they are using games online for kids that they can use to learn.

When children play computer games, some areas of their brain become more active. Those areas that translate and decode visual information and transmit information and instructions to your hands are used more, and both of these are important. If nothing else, if you allow your child to play kids computer games they will be able to interpret visual stimuli faster, and have slightly improved eye/hand coordination.

On the other hand, if you manage to find some good educational games, children can learn a lot when they play kids computer games. You can find the type of collaborative interface, which allows up to four children to play the same game together on one computer, using four separate mouse pointers.

When your children play computer games that are educational and high quality, they can learn number skills, word skills and collaboration – three things that are vital for other forms of learning. While playing violent computer games does tend to have a negative effect, most computer games do little harm, and might even teach some good. All you need to do is watch your child to make sure that they spend at least some time outdoors.

You know how to find all sorts of things online for kids. Not only are there learning games for almost every single age group, there are too many home schooling sites that comprise popped up for both the children and the parents. These are great resources. I have been going through some of them to find learning things for my daughter.

Though the Internet is a wealth of great information online for kids, to hand are effects that you have to watch out designed for. Just like in your own community, there may be dangerous types lurking around where kids are known to be. Around are those who pretend to be teenagers (or even younger) in order to get close to children. If your child is using message boards online for kids, make certain you check everything they are doing and know who they are talking to. It is vital that you keep an eye on what is being said.

By: Jane Reynolds

About the Author:

One of the questions that I get asked most routinely is which sports I believe offer the best development capacity to young athletes.

This is a loaded question for several reasons…

First of all, ANY sporting activity lead by a quality-based coach is wonderful for kids.

That being said, the true crux and efficacy of that statement is based largely on the ‘quality-based coach’ comment.

It is only when poorly educated and over zealous parents and coaches (i.e. adults) get involved too heavily in youth sports that the experience can become sour. Parents often push too hard and seek success at a young age; coaches often are limited in their understanding of developmental science and routinely ‘drill’ kids with ‘sport specific’ (I hate that phrase) exercises that are too narrow in scope (not to mention that many youth sport coaches don’t know how to TEACH specific aspects of movement or speed and yet get annoyed when their athletes don’t perform a given drill to a high enough standard).

One the most prominent and problematic realities of the above comments is that there don’t seem to be many (any?) outlets for kids just to play anymore. Every young sporting activity is a life or death struggle that MUST climax in a victory… heaven forbid we actually teach developmentally sound skills in a fun and energetic way in order to promote a wholeness to our youths development – which by the way should include emotional stability (for instance highlighting the skills gained in a given season rather than the ‘wins’ and trophies accrued) and mental stimulation (in the form of engaging life lessons that instill a lifelong love for physical activity rather than a win-at-all-costs mentality which can burden kids with various complexes for years).

Having said that, I encourage parents to remove the desire to watch their 8 year olds win the weekend tournament; I encourage coaches to remove there ‘Lombardi’ hats when they walk into a practice or game situation; I also encourage strength and conditioning coaches to remove there yearning to ‘test’ young athletes from a biomotor perspective and look only to increase a child’s ability from a performance outlook.

In fact…

My message is simple…

Play sports seasonally.

Find coaches and programs that highlight skill acquisition rather than victory.

Find trainers who do the same – work towards instilling skills into kids rather than creating performance markers.

So, here than are my top four sports that all kids should play (in no particular order)-

1) Soccer

In most parts of North America, kids lack foot dexterity and soccer is a wonderful natural enhancer of both foot dexterity and foot-eye coordination. Don’t pigeon hole this ability as only necessary for soccer either. Remember, the crux of developing a ‘whole’ athlete is to engross them in as much athletic stimulus as possible at a young age. Increased foot dexterity will, in time, round out a youngsters overall ability and allow them to progress in there ‘chosen’ sport more proficiently.

Additionally, although many North Americans find soccer to be ‘boring’ (although I will need an explanation on how soccer is boring, but baseball and golf are America’s pastimes) it is a wonderfully athletic and tactical-based sport. Sudden bursts of explosive power, change of direction, looking two plays ahead, playing a ‘forcing’ based defense in which the defender uses their body/skills to change what the offensive player wanted to do – these are fantastic athletic lessons that can be filed away in the nervous system and used at a later point in any sporting activity.

2) Swimming

Unloaded shoulder and hip mobility adds a great deal of pliability to the frame of a young athlete. With so many injuries occurring due to restrictions and tightness in kids (yes… I do believe wholeheartedly that many of the youth sport injuries we see annually throughout the world could be prevented with a simple and basic increase in both systemic strength and mobility) hip and shoulder mobility initiatives are crucial.

Additionally, kinesthetic differentiation is a physical skill lacking in many kids (this refers to the knowledge of how much force is necessary to produce a desired result). My opinion on this matter is simple – everything we tend to do with kids, both in sport and training, is based on maximal efforts. In our zeal to search for those ‘performance markers’, we overlook the notion that sub-maximal efforts are both developmentally sound and build certain physical qualities not seen in high force-based outputs. Swimming is the essence of building kinesthetic differentiation – kids simply won’t last long in a pool if they put as much force as possible into every stroke.

3) Martial Arts

Almost every martial art I am familiar with is based on skill acquisition as a primary marker. Not only is that mentally and emotionally good for a child, but it infers the teaching of patience and ‘enjoying the journey’ rather than ‘searching for the destination’.

While a great deal of martial arts practices in North America have become watered down (8 year olds earning black belts – if you knew anything about traditional martial arts, you know how ridiculous that is), most organizations I am familiar with teach a wonderful style of patient skill development and discipline.

Athletically speaking, dynamic flexibility, end-range systemic strength, mobility, spatial awareness – the physical ability built through martial arts is awe-inspiring and can apply to any sport.

4) Gymnastics

Again, the physical elements that can be built through gymnastics are amazing – spatial awareness, flexibility, relative strength, dynamic and static balance – the list goes on.

If for no other reason, the ability to know where you are in space and take a fall ‘well’ is a required skill for any sport.

So… there’s my list.

Don’t get me wrong, the list is nothing without a quality coach at the helm of each of these respective sports. Martial arts instructors for instance, are often archaic in their knowledge of warm-up design as are gymnastic coaches in their practices of flexibility enhancement. Having said that, good coaches do exist and I urge you as a parent to find them. I also encourage trainers to seek out joint venture partnerships with quality coaches and augment a child’s development with solid strength and skill acquisition-based training habits.

Play soccer in the autumn.

Swim in the summer.

Participate in martial arts through the winter.

Take gymnastics in the spring.

Mix in some developmental training and play other sports recreationally for interest and development sake (basketball and baseball for example).

By the age of 13 – 14, you’ll have a solid athlete with limited injury who understands sport tactics and is strong, mobile and flexible…

Not a bad place to be!

By: Brian Grasso

About the Author: