To think it is very difficult to convince DC to play outside when indoors is enticing

[pinkestpanther]

Just that really.

These days there are so many dopamine hits on offer indoors that it is very hard to encourage outdoor play. My DC are very resistant to playing in our garden. They will play outside if we go out to a park or beach, but it would be good not to have to go out for them to play outside.

A simple:
”no screens during the day, not now or in the holidays, none”
they soon settle into organic play when they realise this.

I got a pop uo beach tent and find chucking it up and giving them a messy and craft type thing to do if they're not up for running wild works well, our garden is small so it just has a slide and balls. Bubbles, water gun fights on hot days,skipping rope and hula hoop all well received. Also snacks outside and even screens if they've been running round and just want to chill. As a general rule mine prefer outside and it's entertaining them inside that's tough but they are 4 and 7. 4 yr old loves her dollhouse and dolls in general, eldest wants to role play Pokemon and sword fighting games so works best outside.

If we think ours aren't getting enough outdoor time we tell them that they can have screen time after X amount of outdoor time.

They do have a lot of garden toys/furniture though and it's quite a big garden overall.

If you're going to get new things for them then there's these rockets that they set up, then stamp on a pump to make them fly into the air. Great fun.
But I don't recommend it because 2 of said rockets are still in our tree and it's been a year 😂

My dc used to have to earn screen time by jumping on the trampoline 200 times. Often enough they'd run back in, "I've done 409 jumps!" and run straight back out again to make it a round 500. It didn't really matter how many jumps they had done. The point was to get the exercise and the fun of exercise. I spiced it up by getting them to skip rope on the trampoline, or to play catch with a sibling outside the trampoline. Swingball was also good for this.

You need to just set clear boundaries with it and it won't be a battle after a few weeks. We did this 2 years ago and life has been so much better.

There's no screen time on school days, tv remote is put away, tablets are out of sight and teenagers phone goes away after school until he has half an hour at 7pm or if he's going to see friends he can take it.
On weekends our 6 and 9 year old have 2 hours screen time, they can have it when they want and use it to either watch something, go on tablets or play something like minecraft, but after the 2 hours are up they know they have to wait until the following weekend. We give them warnings after an hour and ask if they want to save the other hour for later or Sunday, then give another warning when there's half an hour left and when there's 10 and 5 minutes left.

One thing that has helped with our DC enjoying playing outside has been being friends with neighbours children. They play together for hours and will come up with lots of different games, or even just do things like chalk together for ages which doesn't entertain them long alone or with siblings.

and then how long are you allowing them on screens ?

We didn't set a fixed limit, but never allowed more than 30-45min (depending on age) in one session. More than that lead to meltdowns and frustration behaviours. But once you include after-school snack, homework, 'earning' the screen time and supper, there was rarely time for a second screen session. As they grew older and supper time got later, they could earn another screen session in the same way. We never allowed screens after supper, except for watching TV together as a family. But that was when they were even older.

At this time of year my DDs love being in the garden (we are very lucky to have one). They love water play, and when the paddling pool is out, they stay out for hours. We get through a lot of sun cream!

Lock the ipads away. Let them have an hour before supper then lock them away again.

so pleased I found this thread - this is something we really struggle with- when screens are so easily accessable- i actually find we get out more in the colder months, whether its in the sand pit, to the park, a scoot on our Micro scooters ( which they do use indoors too) - i think my little ones prefer the cooler weather too - its nice to warm up after and get snuggly- i agree its so hard to get the balance.