Can We Spend One Thousand Hours Outside?

Do you have memories of playing outside as a child?

The last house we lived in when we were living in Texas, where I spent the majority of my childhood, was next to a big empty field with woods and a creek beyond it.  We also had a lot of yard space and a couple of big trees grew on the edge of our property.  While I do remember spending time playing with dolls, reading books, and sewing, we also spent a lot of time outside.  Coloring on the sidewalk with chalk, playing under the big trees, running through the field, and riding bikes around the neighborhood.  I was not the most athletic child, and I seem to remember spending less time outside as I got older, but I do have fond memories of many different outdoor activities.

I first heard about 1,000 Hours Outside through Hannah who I follow on Instagram.  The general point of the initiative is to encourage children to spend at least as much time outside as they do in front of screens, if not more.

Spending 1,000 hours outside in a year sounds very ambitious, especially when you have children young enough that they need to be supervised when they are outside, never mind the cold winters here in Michigan and very rainy springtime.  During the summer Adeline will spend ages running around outside and exploring by herself on our property.  She is quite independent.  Oliver isn't even two years old though and he his much more mischievous than his sister, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to trust him to be outside on his own.

Even with those obstacles, we still managed to spend 195 minutes (more than three hours) playing outside Tuesday-Saturday last week!  We built snowmen, snow bricks, went sledding, and hiked around in the back pasture.

On our way home from church on Sunday we stopped at a store to look for proper winter gloves and possibly snowpants for Oliver.  We couldn't find anything.  I've been dressing him in two pairs of pants and some mittens made out of old socks during our outdoor excursions, but I would love to find some good winter clothing for him so we could stretch our outdoor time even just a few minutes more during the winter.  I think I can beef up his homemade mittens a little more so that they'll be waterproof and stay on a little better.  Does anyone know of good winter gloves and snowpants in 2T-3T size that aren't insanely expensive?

To be quite honest, I do not enjoy cold weather.  I would rather curl up on the couch with a book or crochet project than go outside during winter.  Living in Texas for the first fourteen years of my life probably has something to do with that.  But I really have enjoyed getting outside with the kids this past week.  I told Noah that I am re-living all of the snowmen I didn't get to build as a child who grew up with very little snow.

Will we reach the goal of spending 1,000 hours outside this year?  I doubt it.  It sounds too lofty.  But for now I'm shooting for spending as much time as we can outside based on how cold it is.  It will become easier as the weather warms up and we begin tending to the garden again.  The kids thought it was such a treat to munch on fresh green beans and tomatoes straight from the garden this past summer.  I long for summer so much on the coldest winter days.  It's a good thing I have delicious canned peaches waiting for me in the basement when I need a taste of summer.