Have you ever thought to yourself how nice it would be to go back to the time when technology wasn’t the central focus of our children’s lives? Do you remember when children were playing outside until dark with the neighborhood kids? In this day and age, you may find it difficult to pull your children away from phones, tablets, and TV screens. Take the initiative this spring to get your whole family outside and enjoying the fresh air with these five tips!
Take Walks After Dinner
One of the easiest tips we have for how to get your family away from the screen is to start taking a walk after dinner. To ease into this new activity, we recommend going once a week or making it part of your weekend traditions, when you may have some more free time. In the summertime, you can increase the frequency of walks after dinner since there is no worry of finishing up homework before the next school day. This is also a great time to get your kids to use their bikes, scooters, rollerblades, and skateboards some more!
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Play in the Rain
You know the saying, “April showers bring May flowers!” Springtime often means plenty of rainy days, which are usually viewed as perfect TV binge-watching days. Take a break from that new Netflix series or Disney movie marathon and pull out some old sneakers or rain boots. You know kids love to get messy! Move the party outside by playing in the rain! Have a puddle jumping contest, create a relay race in the backyard, play some football, or do a slip and slide! You may have some extra laundry to do once you get back inside, but you’ll also have some great memories for your children to look back on.
Explore Nature
Take a step on the wild side! You don’t have to go as extreme as going on a safari, but you can explore nature locally and have it be an active, educational, and fun experience for the family. Not sure where to start? There are more natural preserves and conservatories around you than you think! Consider making a checklist of all the parks in your area and visiting each of them. Make sure you do your research before you go to figure out what is available at the park. Each park is different so you may find yourself walking, hiking, biking, or enjoying other activities or events. Regardless of what activities are available, sometimes it’s nice to just enjoy nature. Make sure you take time to collect any documentation the parks or conservatories have so that you can learn more about the history of the park and of the area.
Add a Playset to Your Backyard
While going to a park is a great way to get your family outside, sometimes it’s easier to stay at home. Adding a playset to your backyard can be a convenient way to get your children off of their devices and playing outside without having to leave. A playset can be used all year-round, but the real fun starts at the beginning of spring! By having a swing set in your backyard, you are giving the children a chance to make childhood memories and enhance their gross motor skills. Introduce your children to the simple game of cops and robbers or buy extra accessories to increase the number of activities on your swing set. The extra additions can help to keep the kids entertained and can also extend the life of your playground.
If you’re installing your swing set yourself, we encourage you to make the process of building it a family event. This will help the children see the fruits of their labor and make them value having a swing set much more.
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Plant a Garden
Planting and maintaining a garden is the gift that keeps on giving! Get together as a family to figure out what kind of vegetables or flowers you would like to plant and buy the seeds at the store. When it comes time to finally plant, you can place the seeds in your flower bed if you do not have space for an actual garden in your yard. Your children will love watching the plants grow and your wallet may even thank you too!
It may be hard to get your children outside and moving with all of the different types of entertainment available these days. By adapting a few of these activities, your family will be up and moving in no time!
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