Monday, August 17, 2015

Sunshine and Smiles

Some of you wonder why we put priority in outside time, some of you are wondering why we use the 1000 hours benchmark, and there's some of you who don't really wonder about it at all.

Nearly two years ago I was surfing the web, just attempting to find interesting ideas, and I ran across the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge. I read the articles, I did some independent research, and I came to the conclusion that 1000+ hours outside is MUCH better than 1000+ hours of screen time.

The first year we didn't make the 1000 hour mark, this year we're on track to get more than 1000 hours. There's no true sign up for the challenge, you keep track of your own hours, and you can be part of the community on Facebook doing the same thing. In the past two years so many people have learned about the challenge it's simply amazing.

Try making it a priority this week to get outside more and away from screens. Watch your children have fun and explore. Look for their behavior changes with less exposure to screens.

They're not going to become perfect children just because you limit the time in front of screens. You're still going to occasionally deal with them having attitude issues. But, I've noticed that with less exposure to screens their attention spans increase! Making other areas of our day easier.

So, Google the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge... look them up on Facebook... and then just try getting outside more this week. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.