A new report issued by the National Wildlife Federation, echoing hundreds of other studies and reports, states that kids need to get outside more. Statistics show that kids are spending about half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago, and only 6% of children between 9 and 13 play outside on their own. Also, according to research by the Kaiser Family Foundation, on a typical day, kids 8-18 years old spend an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes using “entertainment media”—in other words, not playing outside.
Especially as school across the country cut their physical education programs, it’s no wonder the childhood obesity rate has doubled in the past two decades.
Personally, I feel that if we need to invest time and money into providing evidence as to why children need to play outside more, that’s a sign that there’s a serious problem, and a daunting one at that.
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