With summer just starting for kids out of school, looking for something to do can be hard, but summer camps are a popular cure for boredom.
Saskatoon offers many kids’ camps, including ones focused on special interests like art, or a spy camp. Camps can also keep them off the screens and engaged in other activities.
Experts say screen time is continuing to go up in youth. Less than 50 per cent of kids are getting the recommended 60 minutes of playtime per day.
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“There really isn’t an aspect of health where outdoor time and physical activity doesn’t benefit a child versus the isolation of the screen time,” said Katya Herman, associate professor in the faculty of kinesiology and health studies at the University of Regina.
She says schoolteachers and daycare workers are seeing a difference in kids who get more screen time at home, as opposed to less.
“They can see those kids that are less likely to use screens, have that greater ability to be imaginative, to have that unstructured play, to not need every second of their day scheduled, so to speak.”
Herman says play and being social are important.
“There are physical benefits, emotional benefits, mental health benefits, benefits to academics as well for school time. But that unstructured kind of imaginative play where they’re just running, jumping, climbing on their own is really very valuable for kids.”
Watch the video above for more on the importance of off-screen playtime for youth.
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