Spring has a way of pulling children outside almost on its own. The longer light, warmer air, gardens and pavements suddenly full of things to notice. This year, that shift lines up with something else worth noticing: Heritage Day, on 24 September, when South Africa pauses to celebrate the many cultures, languages and traditions that make up this country.
At first glance, "sensory play" and "Heritage Day" might seem like two separate topics. In practice, they overlap more than you'd think. Many of the games South African children have played for generations - skipping games, clapping games, morabaraba, diketo - are underneath the fun, rich sensory and movement experiences. They ask children to balance, coordinate, count, predict, and cooperate, all while connecting them to family and culture. Spring just happens to be the perfect season to take that play outdoors.
Why outdoor, hands-on play matters so much right now
From an OT perspective, the value of outdoor play isn't just that children burn off energy (although this is a big one) it's what their nervous systems are doing while they play. Uneven ground, changing textures, wind, sunlight, and the unpredictability of playing with other children all ask the body to constantly adjust. That kind of input supports balance, coordination, body awareness, and the ability to stay calm and focused, skills that show up later in far less obvious places, like sitting still at a desk or holding a pencil with control.
Indoor play has its place, especially on hot or rainy days, but it can't fully replace what a body gets from real grass underfoot, a breeze, or the effort of running on uneven ground. And many traditional South African games are, in effect, ready-made developmental activities - they were never designed by a therapist, but they support so much development naturaly: rhythm and timing (clapping and skipping games), planning and strategy (morabaraba), balance and coordination (diketo, hopscotch-style games), and turn-taking, negotiation and teamwork in almost all of them.
Things to try at home this Spring
You don't need any special equipment for most of this, just a bit of outdoor space and where possible, an adult or older sibling who remembers how a game is played.
Bring back a traditional game. If it's part of your family's heritage, ask a grandparent, aunt, or uncle to teach a game they played as a child - a clapping rhyme, a skipping song, morabaraba drawn in the sand with bottle caps as counters. Beyond the cultural value, most of these games quietly build coordination, memory, and social skills. If a specific game isn't part of your own background, it's still worth exploring together and talking about where it comes from, Heritage Day is as much about appreciating other people's traditions as it is about your own.
Try elastics (rek). Many South African parents will remember this one instantly a loop of elastic stretched between two people's ankles, with a third jumping through a pattern that gets harder as the elastic rises from ankle to knee to waist height. It's a game that's largely disappeared from school playgrounds, which is a shame, because it's still one of the simplest, most effective things a child can do for coordination. All you need is a length of elastic (or a chain of rubber bands tied into a loop) and at least three players.
- Two "holders" stand facing each other with the elastic stretched around their ankles.
- The "jumper" works through a sequence of foot movements between and around the two strands - in, out, on top, straddling both sides- without touching the elastic with their hands.
- Many South Africans will remember the rhyme that went with it: "England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Inside, Outside, Inside, On" the jumper's feet matching each word.
- Clear the pattern, and the elastic moves up a level. Miss it, and it's the next player's turn.
Rounds of this quietly build balance, bilateral coordination (using both sides of the body together), rhythm, and sequencing while also being, frankly, just a lot of fun.
It's a small, low-cost way to hand down something from your own childhood, and a good reminder that some of the best developmental "equipment" was never bought from a shop.
Set up simple outdoor sensory exploration. A patch of garden, a few plant pots, or even a section of pavement is enough. Let children touch different textures (bark, leaves, soil, grass), smell what's growing, and explore barefoot on safe surfaces. Narrating what they're feeling ("that bark is rough, this leaf is smooth and cool") adds a language layer without turning it into a lesson.
Make movement the main event, not an add-on. Running, climbing, balancing along a low wall or plank, and general rough-and-tumble outdoor play all contribute to the same coordination and regulation benefits as more "structured" activities, they don't need to look educational to be doing real developmental work. If your garden could use a bit of new movement potential for spring, an outdoor swing is worth considering too, swinging gives the vestibular system (the body's sense of balance and movement) rich, rhythmic input, which many children find both regulating and genuinely calming, alongside the obvious appeal of just being fun.
Let it be unstructured some of the time. Not every outdoor session needs a plan. Time with no specific goal just being outside with materials, space, and other children gives children room to problem-solve and invent their own play, which is valuable in its own right.
A gentle note on differences
Every child engages with movement, textures, and new sensations differently, and that's completely normal some children dive straight into mud and noise, others hang back and watch before joining in, and both are fine ways to explore. If you notice your child consistently avoids certain textures or movements to the point that it limits their day-to-day play, or seems unusually distressed by ordinary sensory experiences like grass, sand, or noise, it can be worth a conversation with your OT, preschool teacher, not because something is wrong, but because a professional can help you understand what's going on and how to support it. There's no single "right" way a child should respond to sensory play, and reaching out for guidance is simply one more way of supporting your child, not a sign you've missed something.
A holiday made for outside
Heritage Day has another name that most South Africans know just as well: Braai Day. What started as a campaign to give the country one shared, cross-cultural activity to gather around has become one of the few public holidays that's almost defined by being outdoors — around a fire, in a garden, with family and neighbours nearby. It's a good reminder that some of our biggest traditions already happen outside, without anyone needing to plan a special outing.
That makes it a genuinely easy day to lean into everything above. While the adults are around the fire, the garden itself becomes the activity for the kid, a game of morabaraba scratched into a garden bed, a loop of elastic for rek between cousins, bare feet on the grass while the smell of the braai drifts over. Nobody needs to organise a program or buy anything special; the ingredients are just people, a bit of outdoor space, and the whole afternoon.
If your own Heritage Day memories include a braai, a specific game, a song, or a dish that always showed up, that's worth passing on too, not because it needs to be developmental to matter, but because handing down something real, together, outside, is what the day was always meant to be about.