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Feature Articles for March 2003
 A walk in the outdoors with your child can serve many useful purposes. Walking provides good exercise, particularly if it involves climbing up and down hills. It is also a great way to relax and have fun. When you take your child for a walk, make it a “curiosity walk.” Help her explore casually with the senses of touch, smell taste, hearing and vision. Stop to examine a rock, plant or tree in the woods or in the park. Ask questions to provoke interest: “How does it smell?” “Can it make sound?” “Do you know something it looks like?” Your answers will allow you to supply new and descriptive words such as “mushy,” “squeaky,” “lumpy,” “bumpy,” “squishy” and “enormous.” A walk in the outdoors can also be enjoyed if you treat it as an obstacle course game. Ask your child to walk around a tree, over a hill, under a branch. See if she can do the same thing walking backwards. You can make up your own game by finding different ways to get from one place to another. As your child moves between, around, across, under and on top of objects, she is increasing her awareness of her body. She must use her body in different ways to bend, stretch, pull, push, twist, turn, wiggle, creep, shake, squeeze and stoop. Those different movements help her find out how she can use her body, arms and legs As you play and explore together, your little adventurer gets lots of practice in using not only her body but also her mind to tackle the obstacles. Courtesy Growing Child www.growingchild.com |
