An observation from the article that I can confirm is, "It is hard to find groups of children outdoors at all, and, if you do find them, they are likely to be wearing uniforms and following the directions of coaches while their parents dutifully watch and cheer." Yes. For a few years I actually wondered if the townhouse neighborhood in which I live had any children living in it besides my own. It seemed the kids would come home from school and immediately stay inside their houses, no matter how good the weather, and that they must have been at daycare during the school holidays and not outdoors in the neighborhood after that either. Only recently are there quite a few neighbor children (typical age four or five) who play together regularly--usually on my patch of lawn or on my driveway, oddly enough--in view of their parents' homes but somewhat independently from their parents. Playing outside is very good for children, and I have encouraged my children to play outside every day for their whole lives. Our neighborhood is crime free, and my children walk to the local public library whenever they like. (They can really go whenever they like because they are homeschooled. My second son volunteers at the library at an hour when most other teenagers are in school.) Perhaps my children's free-range lifestyle is beginning to influence the neighbors. I hope so.

From your post:

This shouldn't just include the amount of time given to this activity but should even encompass the toys that we give kids.

One word: Legos. My sister gave my oldest son a set of Duplos for his second birthday, and thus Lego mania was born in our household. We have more than 10,000 Lego pieces in our house from dozens of separately bought Lego sets, and all four of my children love to spend time putting Lego pieces together, especially when the weather doesn't make playing outside feasible, and they also like to use the Lego constructions as characters in fantasy play with one another. Recently my daughter, our youngest child, has been building elaborate Zometool

http://www.zometool.com/

towers, and those are great fun for the kids too. I much prefer open-ended toys to toys that have too much structure built in.