1000 Hours Outside

 A couple friends told me about this neat program called 1000 hours outside. The idea is simple: to spend 1000 hours outside over the course of a year. That comes out to about 3 hours a day. That was much more than what we were doing. I'm a real believer in the idea that time outside is extremely beneficial to both kids and adults, but we needed some prompting to help us get out more on our normal days. The 1000 Hours website had a ton of printable tracker sheets, including a color by number one. Elliot is for sure a "tracker sheet" kind of kid, so we now have this beauty taped to our wall. 

Also taped to our wall: a prayer rotation slider chart, and a piece of paper with arbitrary points that Elliot assigns to himself and Annie. No one is clear about what these points are for or how they are earned, but it pleases Elliot to be beating Annie and Annie has no clue what's going on so it all works out. 

Racking up some hours in Madera Canyon

Don't let his face fool you- Isaac loves being outside too

A bunch of cousins making Isaac a leaf headdress 

This is our shortcut through the wilderness that we take to walk Elliot to school every morning

We convinced Claudia to go camping with us! Elliot was very pleased that we decided that hours spent sleeping in a tent count as outdoor hours for the tracker. 

You can't not run into the sprinklers when they happen to be on during a morning walk

Making leaf boats by canoa ranch

Outside hours are harder to come by now that it is full on summer. I'm making a goal to get up before the kids and go running twice a week, and I'm hoping to convince Elliot to start waking up earlier for park trips before it gets too hot. And there is always the pool. Here's to more time outside!