Are your children outdoors or indoors most of the time? Do you find that you have to battle your children for them to get exercise,
stay off the tv, etc?
I remember playing outside growing up. Nowdays, it seems like everyone is indoors.
Do you have neighborhoods that are quiet enough to ride bikes and not have to worry about cars?
My neighborhood is very safe and my kids can bike and rollerblade on their own since they were about 8. We limit screen time (that includes computer, TV and videogames) and they are not allowed any screen time before school or until after 5 pm on weekdays or between 12 and 5 on weekends, so they have to find other things to do. My son regularly rides his bike around, though it is harder to get my teenage daughter outside!
Living in a very warm state that boasts sunshine most days with temperatures rarely below 50degrees in the winter, my children have no excuses to not be outdoors. I find it challenging at times to encourage my 3yr old son to go play in the backyard on his own. As long as I lead the way he will follow and until his younger brother starts crawling I will keep leading the way in an effort to ensure he gets to explore the outdoors and get his exercise in.
In this digital age its hard to limit exposure to electronics, especially with children being exposed to technology at such an early age thru school . On the other hand, we have complete control of the TV and limit TV time to 1 hour/day during the week and 2-3 hours on the weekends.
Good luck!
It depends on the weather. If it is nice, we are outside. If not, then we are inside. Even in the winter, if it goes above 40 degrees, we try to go outside even for just a few minutes as long as it isn't windy or raining. We love to go out in the snow and play too.
Today was raining and cold, so we went to the mall and walked around. My daughter had a blast, and we all stayed warm and dry and got a little exercise.
I definitely have to be more creative with getting her exercise in the winter, but we always come up with something -- playing hide and go seek inside, riding her tricycle in the basement, jumping up and down inside, etc. I've also seen indoor hopscotch mats, depending on the amount of space you have. We definitely watch more TV in the winter time, although I do limit it to a little each day. However, in the summer, we can go days without turning the TV on.
You could also sign your kids up for winter sports, dance classes, etc.
My kids love to play outdoors most of the time, and rarely do they complain when I send them there. They can sled at a small park across the street, and as long as there is no snow on the ground they can ride bikes on the sidewalk or on the easement/path behind our house. I make them stay together though, and they are to stay out of the street, because although it's not a busy street, we do get an occasional car. My 9 year old also swims 4 days a week, skis one day a week (at a minimum), and plays soccer 1 day a week in the winter, and 2-3 days a week in the spring - fall.
I should mention though, that we are a very athletic family. I mean like VERY - both DH and I were very much into sports and our boys have taken those qualities to a new level. I should also mention that they still love to play Wii, and watch TV, but they understand they need to exercise, and enjoy doing so most of the time. We don't make it an 'optional' activity for them and we never have.
My daughter is only 18 months old and I already have to limit the amount of TV she watches. Right now it is winter where I live so getting outdoors is really difficult but I try to get out of the house at least once a day with her and take her to the library or to the play area at the mall. I have a play group that we try to get together with every once and a while too. I think every where I go people are just used to having their TV's on all the time even if you are not watching it. I know that our family is guilty of that along with any family or friends house. I don't know why our generation is so obssesed with TV and media but that seems to be what we live for now a days and our kids are following suit.
We live out in the country. We don't have neighbor kids. But, we live out in the country. We have acreage, animals, trees, bikes, etc. And, we don't have TV. Great combo! It is odd to me though, to drive past neighborhoods. I never see children outside. Ever. It's so sad and lonely, really.
We live in freezing cold Idaho so this time of year it is really hard to have enough outside play time! We go sledding sometimes, and at their school they go snowshoeing at least once during the winter. If the weather is bad where you live, try indoor activities this time of year, my girls take dance and gymnastics in the winter, and we go to indoor playgrounds as much as we can, although my 8 year old is outgrowing those. In the summer my kids practically live outside, it helps that we do not have video game systems and we live in a fairly quiet neighborhood. I like to take them out for hikes and nature walks at least 3 times a week when the weather will allow, we have lots of nice paves greenway space and some easy unpaved trails in our town, and we like to go up to the mountains to hike too. You can also take your kids to many different parks in your town, it gets boring to go to the same one too often. If you want your kids to play outside more, you are going to have to go with them, it will be good for you too!
Kids do what they see us do. If we want DS to be outside- we go outside (he is just turning 5 and no kids his age in the immediate neighborhood. We go to the park (less in the winter), play in the snow, sled down our hill, kick a soccer ball around the yard, play catch, make up games outdoors. We don't do tv (with the exception of play off football) which helps. And yes we should be out more this time of year since DS loves the cold (I hate it).
Simplest answer first: Nope. Our neighborhood isn't safe to even be out playing on foot, much less ride bikes. The speed limit is 35, but most people do 40-50. And drivers are extra oblivious in our area... because Seattle in general, and our area in particular, doesn't have "neighborhoods". Residential streets have speed limits of 30-35, and the main way to get anywhere in the city is via residential areas. There aren't major roads that link to neighborhoods... but rather one drives through the neighborhoods themselves, clipping along at a min of 30mph the houses a blur on either side. There are a FEW "neighborhoods" that don't connect anywhere / dead end on the lake, but they tend to be uber pricey (million and multimillion dollar houses). Certain streets are worse than others. And most areas don't have sidewalks. The ones that do are pretty sketchy (as in, in bad repair, and will start and stop pretty randomly). Our area is also really high on foot traffic (we're near the university)... so we have maybe ###-###-#### people pass by on foot daily (the higher numbers on game days). Most areas just have the car traffic. Why drivers are extra oblivious is that they get USED to zooming by kids and pets going mach1, so they don't even bother to look for them, much less slow down for them.
The weather is icky here about 10mo a year (50 degrees and drizzling is our standard... but it's been gorgeous all week... we've actually had 4 days of sunshine, and even some blue skies, which is rare). In fact... there's something nicknamed "Seattle Guilt" amongst parents 'round these parts... it's linked to NOT being outside on any day that is actually sunny.
As far as being inside v outside: Until last year we did lots of indoor activities during those 10 months. Gymnastics nearly every day, McDonald's indoor playground, bounce places drop in times, indoor "beach" volleyball - one of the air hangers has both a bounce place and a sand pit for volleyball, the indoor play structure at the zoo & indoor exhibits, swimming - we have lots of indoor pools - only 3 in the city are outdoors, indoor climbing gyms, indoor soccer, indoor basketball, indoor skate parks, and that's not including playing inside the house -including literally climbing the walls, building forts, handstands, skating inside... you name it.
The only outdoor activities we could count on were swimming in July /Aug, and soccer in Aug/Sept (and by the end of soccer everyone is glad of it because we're all miserable and wet). Everything else was hit or miss. Because even if it's not raining, most of the year things are still very wet/muddy.
After investing in a lot of gear we go outside in icky weather (damp/muddy) for things like hiking... but we don't go to playgrounds, because no one goes to playgrounds in the rain. Ditto playdates are inside the vast majority of the time, because of weather issues. Starting last year we started snowboarding in the winter. So we're outside now an average of 10 hours a day 3-5 days a week Nov-Apr... but Sept/Oct/Nov & May / most of June we're stuck doing "rainy day" activities.
My 6 yr old son plays outdoors a LOT. He and then neighborhood kids all play, ride bikes, etc. We take him hiking and skiing and out for bike rides on the weekends. We sign up for family "geology hikes" or whatever comes along in our area. We live on a culdesac so all the kids can safely play out there. We all go to rollerskating at a local church sometimes on Friday nights. We all go ice skating together too - usually every other weekend. But we also don't have a TV or a Wii so that we cannot get sucked into TOO much screen time. We do have an iPad and he is allowed a certain amount of time a day playing video games. It's an ongoing battle for many people! Once each weekend day can you take your kids to a safe park to all ride bikes or something like that? Every kid's personality is different too - our son just loves doing all this active stuff. Some kids do not like it as much.
