Sensory bins popped onto the Pinterest parenting scene several years ago, and a quick search tells you that they are here to stay. If you’re unfamiliar with this modern parenting tool, according to the website Pre-K Pages, a sensory bin is “typically a plastic tub or a large container of some sort filled with materials and objects carefully selected to stimulate the senses.” Tubs can be themed for seasons, holidays, and specific lessons. You can fill them with beads, pom-poms, water and ice cubes, colored sand, or even dirt.

Yes, dirt. Which begs the question: Why not just go outside?

Educators and caregivers have long recognized the benefit of outdoor play for children. Entire schools and curricula have been developed solely around being outside. Wee Folk Forest Kindergarten in Boulder takes inspiration from Scandinavian forest schools and German Waldkindergartens and operates as a “rain or shine,” entirely outdoor school. Teachers there believe that for children, “Being outside in nature is developmentally appropriate, calming for our nervous systems, rich in learning opportunities, good for the health of our mind and bodies, and deeply enriching for our spirits.”

Wee Folk says the outdoor classroom provides the perfect “interest-based learning environment,” where kids get hands-on, real-world science lessons rather than the manufactured and constructed experience your child might get from a bin of materials. Instead of digging for plastic worms in a tub and then reading a sheet of worm facts, outdoor play lets kids see the real thing in action. They’ll rejoice in hunting for worms curled under rocks, watching them burrow through the soil, and feeling the ticklish squirm as they cradle a worm in their palms.

Waldorf, another nature-based education popular in Boulder County, also roots its lessons in the outdoors. A post on The Waldorf School of Philadelphia’s site explains, “In Waldorf Education, the nature connection is also about showing children the natural rhythms of life and revealing our kinship with all living things. It is about careful observation to see what the natural world has to teach.”

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children, going outside supports a child’s natural inclination to move, move, move. “When children run, jump, climb, throw and kick balls, and ride toys that require balance, they also build gross motor skills and start developing a habit of being active.” Establishing a habit of movement is especially crucial as childhood obesity rates continue to rise. CDC statistics from 2018 state that just over 13 percent of two to five-year-olds are obese, with that number jumping to just over 20 percent for six to 11-year-olds.

And here’s another fact parents will love: Playing outdoors promotes better sleep. Kevin J. Coyle, Vice President of Education and Training at the National Wildlife Federation, in a report titled “Three Ways Nature and Outdoor Time Improve Your Child’s Sleep: A Guide for Parents and Caregivers,” shares that “Outdoor lighting is much brighter and covers a broader spectrum of light. Exposure to such light has been documented to improve sleep quality because it helps to regulate the human body’s internal ‘sleep clock.’” And because kids move around more when they’re outside, they’re more likely to expend energy that would otherwise be pent up by a sedentary activity.

Kids also thrive outside because there are no instructions and fewer rules than when they’re inside. That leads to boundless open-ended play. Professor of education Michael Patte, Ph.D., in a post titled “The Decline of Unstructured Play,” says child-led play offers enormous benefits, including “Opportunities for children to master elements of the world on their own terms; fertile ground to cultivate creativity and imagination; and it sees boredom as a vehicle for children to create their own happiness, enhance inventiveness, and develop self-reliance.”

Even a short break like recess is proven to carry benefits back into the classroom. A report from the American Academy of Pediatrics titled “The Crucial Role of Recess in School,” says that a break from structured learning “made children more attentive and more productive in the classroom.” And that regardless of what activities kids chose to participate in during recess, the break “benefited cognitive performance afterward.”

Finally, nowhere more than in the outdoors do we tap into our five senses. With ever-changing weather, seasons, scenery, and environments, our sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste are constantly in use. Think of your child’s glee at the sight of one of our many forest creatures, at the sound of a squawking crow, at the feel of a prickly pine cone, at the smell of a dew-covered pine, and at the taste of colorful wild rose petals. You won’t get that from a sensory bin.