Ginny Yurich is the founder of 1000 Hours Outside, "a global movement designed for any age child (or adult) and any environment" meant to encourage families to spend more time outside. I have been implementing this program and tracker sheets with my students at school, and with my son at home. Once you get your kids outside, nature takes care of everything for you. In this day and age of screen use, it is more important than ever to encourage outdoor play. Enjoy the show, and be sure to check out Ginny's website and social for more!
"We track a lot of things these days - steps, calories, budgets, frequent flyer miles etc - why not track something so beneficial to our children as well? There are so many things that compete for our time so it's easy for something like this to get back-burnered. We found that if we spread these 4-6 hour chunks out over a few days (shooting for roughly 20 hours a week) it would take us to averaging about 1,000 hours of outside activity a year. That seems insane, maybe - we get it. But did you know the average American child spends 1,200 hours a year in front of screens? Now THAT seems insane to us, but hey, we get it - parenting is hard and sometimes those screens 'seem' like such a welcome reprieve from the chaos. We certainly are not militant about it and we don't take a 'no screens ever or you will surely die' approach either. But we would, quite vehemently, argue that nature- big, beautiful, bountiful nature - is the absolute and very BEST reprieve for you and your children. Honestly, they don't even compare!"
https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/
@1000hoursoutside
Books mentioned in this episode:
Last Child in the Woods - Richard Louv
Balanced and Barefoot - Angela Hanscom
How to Raise a Wild Child - Scott Sampson
No Such Thing as Bad Weather - Linda McGurk