Today's lesson: outdoor play

Since the dawn of parenthood the battle of a child's high energy level vs. their caregiver's lack thereof has prevailed with both sides taking hits as varying child development theorists, medical professional and behavioral therapists have come along throughout the ages with their "ideas." Through my years teaching preschool and pre-k, I heard many tales of woes concerning such battles.  The tales ranged from not being able to keep up to swearing up and down their child had ADHD to all out tales of destruction followed up with an exasperated "what can I/we do?!" My first question was always, "what kind of access to outdoor activity does your child have?" Typically, their time after school or daycare was very minimal or non-existent, for obvious and valid reasons.  Fortunately for me, most of the episodes occurred over the weekends, which allowed me to open up the discussion about what their child's typical day consists of at school.  Using my most recent and favorite program as an example, in a 3.5 hour program, 1.5 to 2 of those hours were spent outdoors. Often times parents were shocked to find out that their child was still acquiring skills necessary for kindergarten while having such a large chunk of time devoted to outdoor play...cue *gasp.*  Once parents started devoting large amounts of time to outdoor play during the weekends, energy their child's levels lowered making their behavior more manageable and their energy levels increased...win, win.

About a week ago I was contemplating night weaning, as the 2am night feeding has been getting REALLY old, but I had already committed to myself to not night wean until after he turned 1yo. So I dug down deep and found a new determination to survive the waking(s).  Unexpectedly, something magical happened on Wednesday - Clubhouse Funzone in Ventura.  It was a physically challenging environment but after about 30 minutes my son was eager to take on the challenge; we were there for an hour and a half. That night he slept from 7p - 5:30a with no wakings...better yet, since he woke up for the first time at 5:30, he went BACK to sleep for another 2 hours! Yes, please and thank you!  And then on Thursday, another magical place - Oxnard Beach Park (aka the Pirate Park).  That night he slept from 8p - 6:15a with NO night wakings! Could it be I MAY have found the key that unlocks the door to no more night wakings (assuming no teething, developmental milestones, or illness)?! Today I continue the outdoor play experiment.

I have to admit that I let myself get caught up in the mindset of "he's still too little for that" when in fact he's not.  At 10 months old, he's definitely still too little for the climbing structures, but he's not too little to crawl around, eat leaves and sticks, watch the big kids play, be pushed in the swing, and sit in my lap as we go down the slides.  Oh, and did I mention that our mornings are also now spent outside...yeah, an hour a half outside first thing in the morning after breakfast and before AM nap.  So, get outside - not only is it an amazing learning environment, but more importantly drains a child's energy and increases yours.

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2012/03/50-simple-outdoor-activities-for-kids.html