This Parent Tool is to help parents and caregivers encourage children’s outdoor play and risk-taking. You can explore the tool on your own time and at your own pace, as an online, interactive and personalized journey. You can also work through the tool in-person, in a group setting, using the materials we provided at the bottom of this page.
Outdoor play is a basic childhood need and taking risks is a necessary part of play. Whether jumping in a pile of leaves, climbing a tree, or playing street hockey, children are often happiest when playing. These kinds of experiences - of playing outside freely, including in risky play - are a lot less common for children today. Our worries and desire to protect our children can result in setting too many limits on them, which can interfere with healthy development. Risky play can have many different shapes, but always involves the thrill and excitement of testing yourself and finding out what happens. These are some of the ways that children engage in risky play.
Outdoor play is different from indoor play as it tends to involve children feeling more freedom, being more physically active, moving their bodies in different ways, and playing differently than they would inside.
The outdoors can offer more variety of play environments and loose parts (e.g., sticks, rocks, buckets, sand, crates) to move around, allowing their imagination to shape their play. Children need daily outdoor play opportunities for their development, physical health, and well-being.
The tool consists of material organized in 3 chapters:
1. Reflection
2. What would you do
3. My plan of action
Each chapter can be done independently so you don't have to do the entire journey in one sitting. Think about your approach to risky play and whether there’s anything you want to change. We’ll give you some tools to help you decide and develop a personalized plan to help you make changes.
We have developed two versions of the tool – an online version you can do on your town and a version that can be done in-person as a group. You will find both of these versions below.
This individualized interactive online tool is designed to help parents and caregivers reflect on their current parenting practices and discover simple, meaningful ways to encourage children’s outdoor play and risk-taking.
You can also work through the tool in a group setting. For example, you can consider hosting an in-person workshop in your community.
This downloadable resource offers step-by-step guides and thought-provoking group discussion questions to spark meaningful change in children’s outdoor play and risk-taking in your group.
All the Parent Tool workshop materials are now available for download, making it simple to run your own session. Come together with fellow parents and caregivers for a fun, in-person workshop where you can connect, share experiences, and dive into meaningful discussions.
