Mumsnet user share how they get their family to explore the outdoors with HONEST® Kids drinks

[EllieMumsnet]

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With modern day technology making up a fairly large part of most families lives nowadays, it can be difficult to find ways to spend quality time together in the great outdoors. HONEST® Kids would love you to share your top tips for getting your family to put the technology down and get out and about.

Here’s what HONEST® Kids have to say: “We all love the great outdoors but sometimes it can feel a little daunting thinking of ways to make the most of what is on the doorstep whilst being suitable for the whole family to enjoy together. Our great-tasting, organic drinks combine organic fruit juices, water and natural flavourings to provide simple drinks that your kids will love and in the same way we want to encourage simple, organic family time together.

Giving mums and dads peace of mind, the HONEST® Kids range contains no added sugar, is low-calorie and sweetened only with fruit juice. Keeping children’s playtime refreshing and fun, it is available from selected Tesco stores nationwide."

Do you schedule a walk with the family once a week to ensure you all get that bonding time outside? What about planning different games to play outside, in order to engage the young ones more? Perhaps you make the most of your garden by getting your DC’s playing outside, doing a bit of gardening or even just relaxing with a good book in the fresh air?

Whatever your tips are, share them on the thread below in order to be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

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My kids love outdoors, making mudcastles or snowcastles lol. Riding bikes usual outdoor games with all the neighbouring children. We live in an area with lots of parks and playgrounds nearby we also have moors with cows and rabbits roaming freely and lots of lovely rivers and the canal path too so they always have somewhere to go and it's enough to never get bored. We've recently taken up geocaching too so that's led us into some odd places.

We involve the kids in gardening and garden games at home. Out and about we like to go to parks and national trust sites with pram friendly grounds so that we can just stretch our legs.

Pre-children DH and I were big walkers, so we are looking forward to the time when the kids are old enough to do a bit of rambling, but for now it’s little and often.

We go rock hunting. In our area people paint rocks and hide them for others to find, a bit like an Easter egg hunt but only with rocks instead. My kids love it! It's a great way to get them outdoors and exploring.

Definitely dog walking with the added bonus of tiring them out 🙂

Clothing - the best thing i have bought for the children was waterproof trousers. That has meant that there is no reason not to get out whatever the weather!

As miss mud-pie champion 1977,78,79...outside is-fitted as standard. We are fortunate in having an i already did this front garden(requires little attention)the back is...in progress? we made a fence.then planted potatoes.we moved big boulders and made a strawberry plantation.there is currently a hole which when my boy stands in it his head is level to my feet.i dont object to jumping in and loosening it with the fork-shoveling it out is his are tho.i have pre dug-resettled a load of shiny bits(25p jewellery mix from car boot)....we walk.the woods is the place to be.waterproofs (trousers n jackets ,available from lidls)are gateway drugs?style to the scottish weather.we still ggo to the park,the bike track etc. i hate tv and he likes to watch every example as to why.(squeking noises eg chipmunks irritate me)we get on better outside.the beach is always our first choice if transports an option. the photos are as digitally technological as it gets.rest of it is just "being" and THAT is irreplaceable

No such thing as bad weather just get the right clothing and get out there! Mine have got quite competitive since they've got activity trackers, they're a great way of getting the kids outside!

We just open the back door each morning and my 1yo son is off crawling up the path. We also head to the park most days and he loves walking with his dolls pram round the block. Apparently getting out before breakfast makes you feel less tired so trying to make that part of our morning routine.

Geocaching! Free and the kids will walk miles looking for 'treasure'....

We are lucky as both our children like the outdoors and we have a dog so a family, longer than usual walk, always takes place on a Saturday and Sunday. We are members of the National Trust and so like to go places where we can walk, let the dog have a run, a playground at the end and a nice coffee and cake bar to finish before we come home.

My son does love his Xbox but he knows that at the weekend we spend time as a family so doesn't usually put up much of an argument.

When my kids were little I used to make a nature tick list for them. Then we would walk round the woods and tick everything off. Now they're teens we still go to the beach or for a walk but they both do outdoor sports as well so it's a lot different.

To be honest I am a bit agoraphobic and find this very difficult. It’s good to read others’ ideas!

My husband and I take baby for a long pram walk around the village in the evening on the weekends to get him to sleep and give us some quality time, exercise and fresh air.

Me and the kids all walk to and from school every day. On the way home they can play in the park, on the grass, through the trees. No matter what we always go for a family walk on a Saturday or Sunday. This may be a short walk to the local park or a longer walk through the area to a park further away, duck pond or some local woods. This happens regardless of the weather. We all wrap up warm if it's horrible. The kids always come back soaking wet and dirty, so it's bath then hot chocolate as a treat (incentive).

We love going somewhere after school - lots of places within easy travel distance, e.g. different parks, gardens, city farm, riverside walks. I don't mind travelling for a bit to find something a bit different and interesting as it's boring going to the same places all the time, and getting there is part of the adventure too.

I’ve got a national Trust membership and we try to use it to go somewhere for a long family walk every time my husband has rest days from work - he’s a shift worker so every ten days or so. We live in a flat so don’t have a garden but I try to get my eldest out every day even if fa just for a walk to the shops. Mostly we go to the park or the woods though, and once they’re older I’m determined to start taking them camping

Bubbles and a picnic are the guaranteed way to entice my children outdoors. My youngest would happily potter about all day in the garden and is not overly fussed by technology or tv. I struggle more with my eldest although we have set times and limits on screen time.

The parks in the area where we live are the ones me and my husband know like the back of our hands as we have lived here ourselves since we were born. So we like to create "treasure maps" with sights for the kids to tick off when we go. We usually end up at the ice-cream van or the parlour as the treasure!

We have a massive garden with a wide variety of outdoor toys which i encourage my toddlers out to play with as often as possible. We also live in a rural area with lots of nice country walks and we often go for walks to see the swans on the duck ponds or to see the windmills at the wind farms.

We're lucky to have access to a farm, so during school holidays and long weekends we often take DD's friends over for the day and arrange scavenger hunts or leave them in a clearing with some pallets, blankets and rope to create a den.

My dd would be our in all weathers given any chance. My tip would be a puddle suite and wellies for them and some decent boots and a big coat for you.
Much better to enjoy a morning of puddle jumping than to struggle with a grumpy, cooped up toddler.

They don't need any encouragement - come rain or shine they are bouncing on the trampoline, making treasure hunt games, collecting stones. The challenge can be, how to get them back in again!

We live in an apartment so we always make an effort to go out, i think sometimes people have a garden they dont use much but not having one forces us to go out more. We also bought a tandem as we dont drive so that makes most trips more exciting as its a team effort.
I usually find making any outing into a treasure hunt/'spot the..' type game means DS doesnt realise how far he is walking/cycling. I love hiding 2ps in the sand, toy soldiers around the park etc.
We are lucky enough to live a beautiful historic city so walking aroud the walls and learning new things about the city is fab - just have your facts/info prepared.
Also having a mission or end destination helps - lets go get baking supplies to make something, lets pop to the local farm shop and see what we can get and make dinner with, lets bike to the other side of town for an icecream.
Tbh, Ds has longterm health conditions so he has always known the benefits of fresh air and excercise from a very young age - it needs to be seen as beneficial and not a chore to get them on board.

We got a dog. Teens who thought it was uncool to spend a Sunday afternoon walking in the woods with their parents are suddenly the keenest ones to go!

I invested a couple of raised garden troughs last year for growing garden peas, broccoli and potatoes, so in spring we plant, and during the year we watered the little green sprouts. We encourage our children to love nature, and horticulture. As the year progresses, the outdoor toys come out of the shed and the trampoline is erected, we play and nurture, and at when the pea pods and little potatoes want harvesting we have fun popping the peas, eating them raw mostly, and then we had the crop of new potatoes with our tea. Being outdoors and having many reasons to be outdoors is a important part of childhood.