DID YOU KNOW????
- Spending time outdoors may lower blood pressure
- Soaking up the sun elevates Vitamin D levels
- Outdoor time can reduce inflammation
- Being outside is good for eyesight
- Outdoor time improves sleep
- Being outdoors burns more calories (compared to indoor)
- Spending time outside relieves stress, anxiety, and depression
- Outdoor time relieves pain naturally
- Spending time in green spaces boosts immunity
- Being outdoors generates creativity
DID YOU ALSO KNOW SPECIFICALLY FOR KIDS ….
- Being outside builds physically healthier children
- Outdoor time contributes to cognitive and social/emotional development
- Spending time outdoors improves sensory skills
- Outdoors increases attention spans
- Being outside builds better immunity and happiness
I could go on and on but we will save that for a future blog. 😉
To say there is a benefit from being outside is an understatement YET why can it be so hard sometimes to make time in our days to get our families outside?? As you may have discovered here on the RaisingRices Blog I love finding measurable, or track keeping ways to have my household run smoothly. Therefore I have created not only a goal for our household but a FUN tracking sheet that will guide out family to obtaining out goal!
GOAL: SPEND 100 HOURS A MONTH OUTSIDE! #100hoursoutsideamonth
As a household we have started in MAY. We have created a printed PDF sheet (below) that we are marking off a box every hour we spend outside. There are 50 boxes (one box for ever two hours) and if you divide up the 100 hours needed for the month it is about 3 hours a day (3.3 to be exact). THIS IS TOTALLY DOABLE WITH A PLAN! When I see it broken up in that way I feel more confident it making it happen!
One last thing which I feel is important to note: we aren’t just playing all three hours, some of the time we are working on our garden, cleaning up the yard, or maybe we decide to go take a book outside and a blanket for quiet time. Perhaps we are going on a family walk, or taking a quick 10 minute play break in our school. We might head outside for art time and find a flower to color or a bug to investigate and make observation about. The options are endless: go to the park, ride a bike, have a picnic, BBQ outside, exercise, water the yard, swim in a pool, build a fort, swing on a swing, walk to dog, mow the yard, and MORE!
So my friends here is the MAY SHEET 🙂 and I am already working on JUNE! Can’t wait to have this accountability from you all! SO when you are on social media tag us at @raisingrices on Instagram or Facebook so we can see your outdoor play, and use the hashtag #100hoursoutsideamonth we are so looking forward to inspiring one-another.
PDF DOWNLOAD HERE: #100outsidehoursMAY
Love,
