Getting Your Children To Play Outside During The Summer

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Now that summer is nearly here, your kids will soon be out of school and will be spending most of their time around the house; but of course, as parents, your goal (for both your children's health, and for your own sanity!) is probably for your children to be spending much of this extra time outside, rather than in the house! With the television and the internet holding a monopoly on the attention of most children, it can be more difficult to get them to spend their summers outside, but if you follow a few simple tips, it will be easier for you to get your children outside - and to help them make summer memories they will not soon forget!

The best way to get your children outside is by limiting their "media" intake; consider giving your children a budget for each day (or for each week) of how much they are allowed to use the internet and the television. When you give your children such a budget, they are going to have to find other ways to use their time - and of course, most of them will quickly turn to the outdoors in order to have something to do!

You can also play outside with your children in order to "jump start" them; make a personal budget of how much time you will spend outside with your children - playing sports, playing games, or just "hanging out" - and make sure you fulfill this budget each week.

Lastly, you need to recognize that it will not be a good idea for you to "force" your children to spend time outside; when you force them to play outside, they are less likely to have fun, but when you take these other approaches, your children will naturally play outside, and they will have a lot more fun. And of course, they will want to be outside more and more as they have more fun out there - and this cycle will repeat itself until your children are rarely using up their media budget because of all the time they are spending outside!