How to Get Your Family Outside More Often This Year

Spending time outdoors has been proven time and again to be beneficial to people of all ages. If you have a family, however, you may have found that it's much easier said than done. Read on to see some tips on how you can get your family outside more often this year, and you can all benefit immensely from doing so.

Set Planned Activities

To get a hesitant family outdoors, it's a good idea to plan some activities for the time they will spend outdoors. These could include things they enjoy doing, like swimming, which is the fourth most-popular activity or sport in America as found by the U.S. Census Bureau. While you do this, also allow some time for unstructured play, which will help the children learn to entertain themselves and get creative. It may take some time for older children, especially if they're not used to it, but they will find their way soon enough if you give them time.

Start a Garden

Planting a garden outside your house is an amazing way to get your children excited about spending time outdoors. They will enjoy learning about plants and the outdoors on a small scale and will be excited about being able to grow something. They will also feel accomplished and learn to be more responsible when they realize that they get results for the actions they take. You never know, you may help one of them discover that they have a green thumb.

Limit Screen Time

Screen time has become an issue, especially over the last two years, during which more people found themselves stuck indoors with their families. It's possible to break this cycle, however, and get the children excited about being outdoors. Start by limiting the length of time they can spend in front of a screen each day, and substitute it with an activity that takes them as far away from the screen as possible. If you have a place where you can go fishing nearby, it would be a great start because this is one of America's most popular recreational activities.

Have Meals Outdoors

Whenever the weather's good, you can have a meal as a family outside. This will be a great way to bond while enjoying the outdoors, so if you don't already have a set-up outside your house where you can all sit together as a family, it's a good idea to get one. A simple table with all-weather seats will do, and you can schedule at least one meal outside. Let everyone take a vote on the day, time, and even the meal they would want to have, so it can be an even more involving activity. When the whole family feels that they have a role to play in it, they will be likely to participate wholeheartedly and enjoy it.

Set Camping Dates

The final tip you can use to get your family outdoors more often is to set dates for camping and make them known to the whole family. When you do this regularly, everyone will look forward to it as family-time outside and it will be easier for them to enjoy it. You may go for drives across the country at times when the whole family is available. Just keep in mind that the oil for an RV needs to change at about the same rate as a regular car, about every 4,000 to 6,000 miles, which would vary if you use synthetic oil, drive a high-mileage vehicle, or have an older RV. The minimum is once per year, so make sure not to go longer than this.

With the tips above, you can start to get your family outdoors more often. You will all enjoy it and possibly grow a lot closer than you already are, so put them in practice as soon as you can because most don't need more than a little planning.