One Year of Counting Hours

 Well, one whole year of counting our outside hours has come and gone. I can't believe it's been a year. The whole idea behind "1,000 Hours Outside" is to spend as much time as possible outside. Studies have found the average American child spends 1,200 hours a year on screens. One study that the CDC looked at found kids 8-18 years old spend 7.5 hours a DAY on screens. So to counter that, a challenge that has now become a worldwide movement, was established- get 1,000 hours of outside time in a year. Surely, if a child can spend that much time in front of a screen, they can spend a little bit of that time outside. The founder of 1,000 Hours, Ginny Yurich, has done some great things. Here is her website for more info: https://www.1000hoursoutside.com/

So on one random day last November, I decided to start tracking our hours. I initially wrote about the challenge and our goals here (with an update here). A whole year later and I can honestly say it was one of the best things we've ever done as a family. Spending time outside has proven to be life-giving. Of course, there are a thousand benefits to being outside, which I mention in my previous blogpost and that Ginny devotes her work to explaining. I can't possibly sum up all the benefits, but I have definitely seen them play out. I may be biased, but I personally believe my children to be well-adjusted, well-regulated children. Obviously we still experience tantrums, attitudes, and behavioral problems, but I think to a much lesser degree than most. I have never known the outdoors to make us more grumpy. It almost always fixes our disregulation. When we are fussy, we go outside. When we are depressed or sad, we go outside. When we are starting to feel sick, we go outside. When we are bored, we go outside. And on the few occasions we haven't been able to go outside (severe cold weather or obligations) I can tell! There have been a few times where several days have passed without us stepping outside and we are always just a little off. It's like the more time we have spent outside, the more we have NEEDED to go outside. It has changed us for the better. We are addicted and can feel it in our bones when we haven't had good outdoor time in awhile. What an amazing experience to have nature settle deep inside of us so that we now crave it. 

Sadly, we didn't make it to 1,000 hours. I knew it would be hard with two littles, but I did not account for all the sleeping my children do haha! In order to reach 1,000 hours in a year, you need to spend 2.5-3 hours a day, on average, outside. For most of the year I had Ewan napping from 9:00-10:30/11:00, Isla napping from 1:00-3:00/4:00, and Ewan napping again from 2:00-3:30/4:00. So that doesn't leave us much time to get outside. In the beginning, Ewan took a lot of naps in the baby wrap outside and those were always his best naps. A lot of times he had to sacrifice his morning nap if we took a trip to our favorite nature preserve. So different nap times definitely made it challenging. Another challenge was having two very dependent children that needed bundling up. In the colder months, bundling up took a big chunk of time. It was so nice all summer to just open the door and go outside. But even with those challenges we managed to reach 646 hours. I am really proud of us. With the time spent outside plus the times for eating, naps, and other obligations it actually boils down to us spending a majority of our wake time outside. Besides, my children don't watch screens (maybe an hour a week max, give or take) and spend most of their indoor time free playing, baking, painting, or doing some other fun activity. So overall, if the goal was to counter screens and spend as much time outside as possible... I'd say we reached our goal and then some. 

We learned SO much with our time outside. One of the coolest things was returning to the same spot in nature over and over again. I have read about the benefits of this, but we got to actually experience it first hand. We love going to a local nature preserve. They have a kid-devoted area that has become extra special to us. There are fun things like a clubhouse and music wall, but my kids have spent the most time in the woods, sand, and creek. We have watched the creek turn from a frozen layer to rushing waters. We've seen all sorts of little critters, identified all sorts of different birds, and even watched some deer grazing. We have learned to climb trees, rocks, and logs. We have waded in the shallow creek with our barefeet in the summer and traversed the slippery rocks on the bank in the fall. We have seen the leaves begin to bud, then grow into full green shade, then change to all sorts of colors, and now they have all fallen again. We have met friends of all ages and shared so many treasured experiences with them. We have gotten very muddy and wet. We have stomped through deep snow and licked icicles hanging from the branches. We have identified different kinds of plants and searched for lichens. We have seen the lay of the land change in every season, in every visit. We once saw an entire path of mushrooms when we arrived only to find they had all gone by the time we left. This led to some research at home that led to curious conversations that led to picking up some books about mushrooms at the library. We have touched butterflies and played with centipedes. We have built sandcastles and dug holes. We have played in every kind of weather. It has been the most thorough and astounding thing to return time and time again. It has become our sacred place. 

Of course we spent time outside doing other things too. Our year was filled with winter adventures in the woods of Michigan, spring swinging and painting in the backyard, long summer days at Nana and Pop Pop's pool, and autumn walks through the leaves. We visited the zoo and parks multiples times, we had picnics and playdates with friends, we listened to music at the ampitheatre, we spent a week at the beach, we went sledding down the road, we gardened all summer, we picked pumpkins and berries, and everything in between. Some of our best memories this year have been made outside. 

My children are better off for our year of outside time. They are both great sleepers, rarely get sick (especially not with common colds), and have strong healthy bodies. They are confident, resilient, and curious all because we have spent time outside. I know I've mentioned it before, but I can't get over the benefits that natural light has on our bodies. Everything from our heart rate and blood pressure to our mental health is affected by time outside. The light from the sun literally gets into our blood stream and works out all the kinks. Depression, anxiety, behavioral issues, and other mental disabilities are changed (if not fixed). Disorders and diseases can literally be reversed by being outside. Obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure... all sorts of physical ailments can dissipate. Some countries even prescribe time outside as good medicine for such issues. In Japan, many people practice forest bathing where they take time off work to literally sit in the forest and "bathe" in nature. It is so, so good for our health. I will always think being outside is an answer to a lot of problems. The author, Erin Kenny, once said "Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls". Whenever I see complaints in my mom facebook group about their children (whether its behavior, mood, physical, or other), I find myself tempted to interject my opinion. Among the other answers of "try a reward chart" or "have you had him tested for ADHD" or "she needs such and such medicine", I want to say "but have you taken them outside recently?". Constant sickness, chronic sleep issues, high energy, lack of self-control, behavioral issues, severe tantrums, boredom, speech delays, lack of creativity... all of that can be helped with a little time outside. Obviously I'm not a doctor and there are cases where children really do need intervention. Not every sickness is curable with nature and not every mental health disorder just needs sunlight, but I 100% believe a lot of issues could be solved with some free time outside. I stand by that, but I digress. I don't want my child's days filled with running all around town, stress from multiple activities, and no free time for them. I want them to be outside in a calm, serene environment that benefits every part of their bodies and brains.

I am taking a break from recording our hours (not a break from nature though ;)) until the new year. I can't remember for the life of me why we started in the middle of November, but I'm looking forward to 2022 and all the hours we will collect. It is going to be SO fun. Now if only we can find some like-minded friends that will join us in the dead of winter as much as in the summer too :) 

A year of collecting outside hours:

Winter:

Spring: 

Summer:

Autumn:

And as Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "all good things are wild and free". Although it's not always convenient to get outside, I want that for our lives. I want my children to be dirty and to be covered in bruises and scrapes. I went them to run barefoot and climb trees. I think a wild childhood is one of the best things I can give them.