Just like last year, we’re trying to fulfill 1000 Hours Outside. It’s an attempt to match nature time with screen time. It’s estimated that most children spend about 1200 hours each year on screens (I would say, probably more if parents are honest)… so 1000 Hours Outside promotes a shift toward a more productive and healthy use of time.
Last year, we hit 1000 hours in October… which I was pretty proud of! As someone who doesn’t enjoy being outside, it’s hard for me to push myself to go out. Especially when the weather is less than ideal. I’ll admit most of our hours happened between April-September. We didn’t do so well from January-March! I tracked our time using a free coloring page offered on their site. This year, I’m going all out and got their app! It’s been really fun watching our minutes add up to hours. You just open the app and click the timer and the app keeps a digital tracker of your time outdoors… just remember to stop the timer when you head back inside!
Technically, 1000 hours a year translates to about 3 hours per day. That can be hard during bitterly cold days! I try to follow this guide (below), but sometimes we only last 10 minutes when it’s… like 3 degrees outside. But even 10 minutes is worth it, in my opinion!
As I was looking through some pictures on my phone, I realized how funny our outside pictures are! We go from full winter gear, to being jacket-less, back to sledding, to riding bikes, and so on. Our weather has consistently been seesawing between harsh winter to mild spring for a few weeks now. These photos make me laugh! You’ll notice our outdoor time is mostly around our house — playing, filling the bird feeder, waiting for the afternoon bus.
We also have a few places around our house we walk — some neighborhoods nearby, a local cemetery, and soon, we’ll head back to the local bike path! Time outdoors doesn’t have to be planned. 🙂
The kids can’t wait to run outside without any jacket at all!
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