After school on Wednesday, we had just over an hour to kill before collecting Miss Middle Child from her dance class.
An hour can sometimes feel like a really long time to be outside with a young child, but it can go surprisingly quickly. In fact, on this occasion, I had to keep a keen eye on the time so that I wouldn’t be late to collect my daughter!
Since I’m part of Substack’s beta testing for video content, I though that I would share a little video clip of our hour outside (don’t panic, the video itself is just 22 seconds long!) One of the benefits of having a really decent park close by to my children’s school is that there is plenty to do.
This weekend, we have begun our half-term adventures. Because the children are tired today after a busy week in school, we decided that visiting a new park was top of our list. Just a 10 minute drive away from our house, we found a very quiet park with a small climbing wall. It was a brilliant way for the children to let off some steam and try new play equipment.
Try combing items on the challenge list this weekend
Whilst the challenge is technically 30 days long, there’s no reason at all why you can’t combine prompts on the list if you’re keen to tick off everything.
Just this Saturday morning we have:
discovered a new park
looked for animal tracks
climbed a tree
gone on a hike
If you have an Autumn half-term break starting soon, try using some of the challenge items as inspiration for getting outside for longer durations during the week.
Key Takeaways
Outdoor play doesn’t have to have one specific focus and you can combine many activities in one outdoor play session.
Sharing your Progress
Sometimes it’s motivating to share your progress with others. I’ve loved seeing some of your stories on Instagram.
If you’d like to do the same, you can tag me @thisplayfulhome, comment on this post or email me sian@thisplayfulhome.com
Remember, you can adapt prompts to suit your needs - just this week Vanessa shared her cloud gazing activity on Instagram stories which was a great replacement for stargazing.
Autumn Break with Young Children
If you missed Wednesday’s email, you can get some helpful tips and low-cost ideas here.
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