It’s easy to see why so many children wind up not playing outdoors on a frequent basis. In many households the parents work and the kids go to school or day care until they are picked up by the parents normally after work which is about five or six in the evening and then home for dinner. Then, homework needs to be done.
The parents are exhausted, if it’s in winter months by this point in the day the sun has gone down, and then the kids are firmly plopped in front of the television or video games for the night. The cycle repeats itself day after day and soon your kids aren’t even thinking about going outside to play.
The weekend rolls around and normally everyone is too tired from the week. It’s time to make some changes to everyone’s schedule. If the week is too hectic to schedule some outdoor play, make it a must on the weekends and give your kids something to look forward to doing. Younger children enjoy playing in sandboxes with shovels and cars. Older kids might enjoy a game the entire family can participate in like horseshoes, touch football or put a basketball goal on your garage and play a round of hoops.
Make one night a week a family night and snap off the television and have the kids help you make a special dessert and share it around a table and just talk or enjoy a fun game. You might find family nights and outdoor play happen more and more around your house when you have a lot of good choices of fun to have and it will make you much stronger as a family unit.
