Fabulinus: en-route to knowledge…

Sara sits focused on her computer screen. Vansh is watching his favourite television program, while Kim is enthusiastically playing video games. What do these three scenarios have in common? They're all taking place indoors – a situation becoming more and more typical in the lives of our children. There are a number of reasons for this disturbing trend-excessive screen

time, unsafe neighborhoods, busy and tired parents. Safety is another issue in today's world, with many parents reluctant to allow their children the freedom they themselves may have had as children. What could the outdoors possibly have to offer that these three sources don't? The answer is a lot! This edition of our newsletter will focus on learning that can occur in outdoor environments and to assist parents to make the most of these environments with children.

Insights about children’s play from Montessori (1966), Piaget (1962), and Vygotsky (1978) have contributed to the early childhood literature that clearly indicates that children learn and develop through play. Although the children are only playing to have fun, they're learning: • Communication skills and

vocabulary (as they invent, modify, and enforce rules).

• Number relationships (as they keep score and count)

• Social customs (as they learn to play together and cooperate).

According to research (Fjortoft 2004; Burdette and Whitaker 2005), children who play outdoors regularly: Become fitter and leaner

Develop stronger immune systems

Have more active imaginations

Have lower stress levels

Play more creatively

Have greater respect for themselves and others

Kids who play outside are happier, healthier, and stronger!

Tap into the benefits of outdoor play!

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Research has shown that • Outdoor play encourages children

to express their feelings, to discover and investigate the world around them (Guddemi, Jambor, & Moore, 1999).

• Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation, language, cognition, and social competence (NAEYC, 2008).

• Time spent outdoors is also the best way to get vitamin D and reduce myopia (near sightedness) in children.

What we give to our kids...

Articles and pictures of the Newsletter- Courtesy Internet

Play is our brain’s favourite way of learning...

Remember playing outside until mom called you in for dinner? Today’s kids probably won’t. • The outdoors is the best place for children to practice and master emerging physical skills. It is in the outdoors that

children can fully and freely experience motor skills like running, leaping, hopping and jumping. • Outside there are many different and wonderful things for them to see (animals, birds, and green leafy plants), to

hear (the wind rustling through the leaves, a robin's song), to smell (fragrant flowers and the rain-soaked ground), to touch (a fuzzy caterpillar or the bark of a tree), and even to taste (newly fallen raindrop on the tongue).

• Furthermore, interacting with nature and other kids outside help to stimulate the curiosity and creativity of children, and also boosts their confidence as they learn new things.

• Children who spend a lot of time acquiring their experiences through television and computers are using only two senses (hearing and sight), which can seriously affect their perceptual abilities.

Therefore parents must: • Create an environment that empowers children to independently pursue creative play, • Enhance the quality of the play experience by interacting with children, • Carefully observe to assure that children play in appropriate and safe ways, • Organize visits to museums, exhibitions, book fairs etc.

(Courtesy http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com)

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Picture Description: Help your child colour & describe the following picture in 5 lines

Ask any adult his/her favourite memory of school and it will certainly be some sort of activity or a field trip. Our Healthy School promotes physical activities in the school curriculum, and supports healthy lifelong habits, by conducting following activities on regular basis: • Field trips • PEC activities • Adventure Camp • Gymnastics • Skating • Free Play • Swings • Yoga

Our ‘Healthy School’ Initiatives

Children's bodies want to move! They want to run, jump, climb, crawl, skip, lift, and leap. They want to explore, imagine, solve problems, experiment, take risks, and have fun. Their eyes want natural sunlight, and their lungs want fresh air. The outdoors offers all these things, and much more. Activities great outdoors are: • Plan a Nature Walk! • Hop like bunnies, jump like frogs & slither like snakes • Play Hide and Seek, Hopscotch, Jump-Rope or Pithhoo (seven

marbles) with your children • Take some books outside and read under a tree • Find shapes in the clouds • Chasing bubbles gives children a chance to run! • Have a family meal outside • Host a healthy picnic

Outdoor Play- it’s not just FUN, it’s good for you!

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