1,000 Hours Outside

Camp Magnolia is a dream that combines some of our favorite passions, one of them being a love for the great outdoors. Who doesn’t love the sunshine on their face and being completely immersed in the elements? Well, I’m sure some people may not prefer it, but the benefits of spending time (and a great deal of it) outside speak for themselves.

A great organization we follow is 1,000 Hours Outside. Founded by Ginny Yurick, 1,000 Hours Outside is a for-profit, social good company and movement. Her research has found that the average child only gets 4-7 minutes of outdoor free play every day.

WHAT?!!

And…

Children Should Be Outside for 4-6 Hours Every Day

How sobering, right? We have bought into this systematic approach to childhood, shuffling kids via bus into buildings and then shuffling them through lunch lines, and when they have done REALLY well, we send them outside for 10 minutes of extra recess.

“The premise is simple, but the impact is profound.”
- Ginny Yurich, Founder

From one of their recent blogs:

"In Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident and Capable Children, Angela J. Hanscom writes "kids of all ages should get at least three hours of free play outdoors a day."  I'm all for balance.  Understandably, family life is a tricky juggle.  But no matter the situation we are in we owe it to our children to try our best to give them baseline the components they need for higher-level development.  Maybe 4-6 hours a day outside isn't doable but the current statistics say that the average child only gets 4-7 minutes of outdoor free play every day.  This means that the average child is probably outside for 30 minutes or so a few times a week.  

And the contrast:

It may shock you to learn that kids spend an average of 4-7 minutes of unstructured time outside each day - while spending 4-7 hours using devices with screens. Needless to say, our physical, mental, emotional, and relational health has suffered. But there is a ready solution: get outside!

Phew!

Are you on board yet?!

Ginny has pdfs you can download to track the amount of time you and your children spend outside. Download one here.

You can bet we’ll have some printed off at school, tracking them together when we’re outside most the day, every day!

We are all about sharing resources, which communities and movements do you enjoy??