NEW YEAR, NEW HABITS Welcome to 2020, the year when you finally become the perfect parent, eat right, save the world, and look fantastic doing it! Or not. The new year fills us with monumental expectations of our future selves. But rather than reinvent the wheel, let’s start small. Here’s how you can get outside and move more with your family while agonizing less about the outcome.
The 30-day outdoor challenge
We played outside for three hours every day for 30 days; here’s what happened by M A G G I E H O M E R / photo by J O S H U A H U S T O N
Woodinville parent Maggie Homer spent three hours per day outdoors for 30 days with her two kids, Evie, 4, and Duke 1 1/2.
14
S E AT T L E ’S C H I L D
Janu ary/ Feb ru ary 2 0 20
The idea for the outdoor challenge emerged from a place of desperation. It was fall, and I was anxiously anticipating the arrival of the rain and cold. Our children, ages 2 and 4, were fighting, agitated, and seemingly always frustrated. I felt stuck. Our family needed a new rhythm, a new focus. Inspired by the philosophy of Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of TimberNook, a nature-centered program for children, I set a goal to get the kids and myself outdoors for at least three total hours every day for 30 days, and observe the results. Fitting in the three hours daily wasn’t always easy. To make it work
between school, extracurricular activities, nap times and play dates, I had to intentionally schedule outdoor time. On a typical day, we did one hour after breakfast, one hour after nap, and one hour after dinner. The balancing act paid off. After 30 days, we felt a renewed sense of wonder in the world around us. There was a new sensory depth to our daily experiences that simply did not exist before. Instead of hearing sirens and honking horns, our ears tuned in to the birds twittering. Our eyes searched for pill bugs under rocks instead of watching television screens. Our feet wandered around muddy trails and grassy fields in place of flat concrete and carpet. CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE >
Januar y/ Febru ary 20 20
S E AT T L E ’ S C H I L D
15
