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One day I was feeling exceptionally guilty about the amount of screen time my oldest was taking in each day (I should have given myself some grace, as I’d just had our second child) and I stumbled upon Ginny Yurich’s movement that encourages children (and adults) to spend 1000 Hours Outside over a year. I was intrigued and also curious to find out how many hours we spend outside, so I knew we had to give it a shot!
I made a conscious effort to be more intentional with getting us outside but didn’t start tracking our hours until this year. Life happens.
The benefits of outside play.
- Improved physical and mental health
- Builds confidence
- Promotes gross motor development
- Encourages creativity and imagination
- Develops communication skills
One book I’ve read that really goes in-depth into the benefits of outdoor play is Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident and Capable Children. The author, Angela J. Hanscom is a pediatric occupational therapist who founded Timbernook, a nature-based developmental program.
If you want a good book to deep dive into the why behind the benefits of time spent in nature, this is the book!
How does 1000 Hours Outside work?
You make it a goal for your children (or family) to reach a total of 1000 hours spent outside, over a year.
Ideally, the goal is to get 4-6 hours of outside time each day, but I’ll be honest when you are like us and you’ve got three kids, two of whom are in school, we’re lucky to get a few hours outside during the school year. Especially in the colder months.
How it looks for our family.
I aim for 2-3 hours each day with a bulk of our time outside spent on the weekends or during the summer.
For our family, I don’t worry about getting the hours tracked exactly, I estimate, because honestly, I don’t often remember to track with a timer and we’re in and out all day in the summer months that it just all blurs together.
Side note: I did purchase the app ($2.99) and felt it was worth it. Even though I often forget to start the timer it’s easy to edit the hours later. I love that I can see the number of hours we have each month, and for the year, at a glance. I also love that when we hit a goal, we earn a new badge – that might be the most satisfying part!
For me, the goal is to just get my kids (and myself) outside and see how many hours we get. No pressure. I did create my own rules and decided if only one of my kids is outside, it counts. If all three are outside, even better!
I do not count the hours I spend outside, alone, hiding from my children while eating cookies – don’t act like you don’t do it too!
What I’ve learned.
Get outside, even if it’s just for twenty minutes. Sit in the sun, go for a walk, or draw chalk on the pavement. Oftentimes, even if we didn’t want to get outside initially, once we were out, we found ourselves staying outside longer.
Simple things like eating a meal outside helped bump up the hours and now my older children will take their meals out to our deck to eat, just because. I won’t lie, the cleanup is a lot easier when it’s outside. I also discovered that making charcuterie-like meals was easy and more fun.
Taking books or everyday play outside are also good ways to get in those hours. We color outside, play with trucks or Barbies, or paint outside. Basically, if we can bring it outside, we do.
Sometimes I feel a little stuck and my kids feel like we do a lot of the same things – this summer we were often forced to stay close to the house due to my youngest’s nap time – if this happens, I pull out a few books we own and have the kids pick a few new things to try!
I really love Ginny Yurich’s book 1000 Hours Outside: Activities to Match Screen Time with Green Time. It’s divided up into seasons and has tons of simple ideas to do outside. The pictures are beautiful and make flipping through the book easy to decide what you want to try at a glance.
We did the Ice Excavation activity from the book and it was a hit with all three of my kids, so much so that we had to do it multiple times over a week.
Challenge Yourself: Join the Movement
We live in a world that is increasingly dominated by screens and indoor activities. The average American child spends 1,200 hours consuming media through a screen. Learn how to balance outdoor time with screen time and find joy in the process, knowing that the true goal lies in the intentional connection with the great outdoors.
I challenge you to try Ginny’s movement and see just how many hours you can complete! As of today, our family has reached a yearly total of 458 hours and 46 minutes. We may not make it to 1,000 hours, but I know we’re more intentional about getting outside, and really, that’s the main goal anyway.