SarahBear
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- Oct 12, 2011
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It is summer break and I don't work in the summer. My husband doesn't work at all. Preschool is out and my daughter has a week off from her summer school readiness program. One day when my husband and I were feeling particularly low on energy and not up for the usual morning time playing with the kids, we got the idea of instituing a mandatory outside time. Our kids typically don't get enough outside time and our oldest has always been highly reliant on others to entertain her. So when energy starts bubbling up around 9:00 to 10:00ish, we now send them outside. They are 5 and 3 and we live on a 1/3 acre lot that has a large unmaintained gravel driveway, a small garden (in the american sense, not the Brittish) and several areas with woods and some grassy areas. We send them out and set the timer for an hour. I keep an eye through our large windows and keep a window open to hear them. When they open the door, I do address any needs, but keep it short and send them back out. And even though it's only an bour, they inevidebly choose on their own to go outside later in the day. I remember spending a lot of time playing out in nature when I was a kid and it seems that all that is needed to replicate that for my own kids is to kick them out and disengage, forcing them to figure things out for themselves. Do any of you do anything similar? We have only been doing this a few days.