Outdoor time – 4-6 hours a day?! Is this possible?!

This is tough! My kids are ages 7, 5, and 3, plus an extra 5yo and two year old twins that I watch everyday.

From May to September, we are outside for many hours a day.  We have a few favourite spots with a trail to walk on and a playground at the end.  We can walk for an hour or more, eat a picnic lunch, then play in the playground for a while.  Or we’ll find a place with a spray park or wading pool and play for hours.  Then we’ll head home and do some school while the toddlers have a nap, and then head back outside to the backyard (sandbox, playhouse, trees to climb, etc.) until supper.  My kitchen looks out over the backyard, so I can be inside and get some cleaning, etc. done while the kids play, or I join them outside and work on my garden or do yard work. 

From October to April, we are lucky if we get 1/2 hour outside, because of our winter weather.  Sometimes we can sneak in 1/2 an hour twice in a day if the weather isn’t too bad, but sometimes we don’t get out for weeks at a time.  I try to find plenty of nature experiences to bring indoors, but I know it’s not the same as being outside. This is when we do the bulk of our school work (my oldest two are grade 2 and kindergarten), leaving a much lighter schedule when the weather is nice.

So, if you look at the whole year, we probably average 2-3 hours a day. <grin>

You have to work with your circumstances (climate, nap schedules, etc.) and just do your best.  To me, the goal isn’t a specific number of hours, but just the concept that outdoors is where so much learning and developing can happen, that we want to be out as much as possible.

Joanne

Not sure if this is accurate, but I may have read many of the moms of Charlotte Mason’s students had household or child helpers/nanny types so it wasn’t a choice between maintaining the home, taking care of the babies, fixing dinner, OR spending hours outdoors. I may be wrong about this. And I think I read, but also not exactly sure, that she was talking about on the better weather days, well for them to still go out in rain, but not going out in miserable weather. I am open to correction if I’m wrong about those two things. I would guess also that children in the time of her writing were set free in the great outdoors with siblings and friends to wander within the boundaries of their neighborhood or nearby woods vs. having to have a parent be out with them the whole time watching to be sure no harm came to them. I imagine it to have been like the children in Anne of Green Gables where the children entertained themselves throughout the town while the grown ups were busy at home or work. Thus, it would be easy today for our kids to be set outdoors most of the day if we didn’t feel the need to be watching after them for safety’s sake. Just a theory. For us, it has been easier to be outdoors now that the youngest is 4 and doesn’t nap.

saritacampanita, I am curious about something I read recently. Is it true that there are not bugs and snakes all over the place in the UK? I live in Texas and it’s quite frustrating with the bugs. Once it starts to cool off in the evening, the bugs are all out and we still have to stay indoors. I had to smile when I read that you think of the weather here as being ideal because I always think that about weather in the UK! We definitely do get a lot of sunshine here, along with very high temperatures, very high humidity, lots of bugs, and lots of dead grass. It’s amusing that we always think the other guy has got it better. 🙂

Shannon,

When I first read your question about how I structure my day to get everything done, I literally laughed out loud.  My first thought was “Who said I get it all done?”  I definitely can’t claim to be on top of everything.  We also don’t leave home to a playground EVERY day, but if not, we’ll be outside in the yard.   After almost 5 years with a home daycare, though, I have learned to streamline things.  So here are my thoughts, for what they are worth.

First, if there is no one in the house for most of the day, there is less cleaning to do!  Eating outdoors means that the floor doesn’t need to be swept and mopped twice a day.  Just shake out the picnic blanket, (and wash it periodically) and it’s done.  Children who use porta-potties (and baby wipes and hand sanitizer) at the playground aren’t messing up my bathroom!  Floors with no one walking on them don’t need to be vacuumed as often.  Toys in the playroom don’t need to be picked up several times a day, and don’t need to be disinfected as often (a requirement of the home daycare).  They play with toys outside, of course, but cleaning them up is part of outside time. 

Laundry in the summer is easier.  Shorts and t-shirts make fewer loads than bulky jeans and long sleeves and sweaters.  We also don’t fold shorts and t-shirts.  There are more towels to wash, but they just get hung back up or put back into the park bag.  Folding is what takes the most time in laundry!

Picnic lunches and BBQ dinners take fewer pots and pans to prepare and often are eaten on paper towels instead of dishes.  Prep time seems to be faster as well.  Crock pots are nice too, since they don’t heat up the kitchen as much (or can even be used outside if your weather is really hot) and the work is done before all the chaos of the day.

My second tip is that I take things outside whenever possible.  Any folding that does need to be done can be done on the porch.  School planning, menu planning, making shopping lists, and many other things can be done outside, with a good tote to carry them out there with.  I can read blogs or forums on my tablet.  Once the toddlers go home, I can leave my older kids outside by themselves and get some work done in the house.

I also have my children help as much as possible.  My 7yo and 5yo can both complete a load of laundry, clean a toilet, mop the floor, vacuum, wash the bathroom mirrors and counters, unload the dishwasher (and load with guidance), and many other tasks.  They are also great about entertaining or helping the toddlers.  This teaches them important skills, but also makes it possible for me to spend more time on other things.

I also have fairly well ingrained evening and morning routines.  That’s when we get most things done.  If the kitchen is clean before I sit down to relax for the evening, the next day with be so much easier.  It takes almost no time in the morning to quickly move the laundry forward a step (wet into the dryer, dry clothes brought upstairs, start a new load), make sure the front room is ready to receive children, and get ready for breakfast.  I do any prep for the day while the twins play and my kids are slowly waking up.  After breakfast the kids each have assigned tasks that I oversee (and assist the 3yo as needed) and then I pack lunch if we are going out.  We usually leave by about 10am, come back around 1pm for nap/school, and back out by 2:30 or 3pm.

We do a lighter school schedule during the warm weather.  I still plan as usual, but we might only get 1/2 or 2/3 of each column of work in a day (in the winter or on nasty rainy days we normally do one column per day).  So far we have done school basically year round, just taking breaks when we need them. 

My house is far from spotless, but that’s okay with me.  As long as the basics are covered, we can get out and take advantage of good weather while it’s here.  Start where you are and start developing routines to get you where you want to be.  It takes time and some thought/planning, but it’s worth it.  There is time for deep cleaning when it’s 30 below!

Joanne

One thing to remember is that 3-4 hours or even 2 hours doesn’t have to be all at once. 20-30 minutes at a time 3 or 4 times a day can get you to two hours. Sometime mid morning, some time after lunch, sometime midafternoon, and maybe in the evenings for a bit with daddy. But those glorious long days of outside everything when the weather is perfect should be taken advantage of as well. Just saying that it doesn’t have to be hard and fast and rigid scheduling. Some of the best outside times are the unscheduled ones.

@Lady in Pink, we were still utilizing a stroller when ours were 4, so that might be an idea to help him last without being cranky. He might even fall asleep in it! We finally got rid of our strollers when ours were 5 and 6! We used them that long!