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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I don't have to drag DD outside because she's out in any weather, on her trampoline, swing, scooter or climbing a tree. But I'm not so keen except in the Summer months and have to schedule family walks at the weekends so that I too get enough fresh air and exercise!

We like to go out for at least one day at the weekend. It could be to swimming or cinema or to see family, anything to get out and about.

My 16 month old lad hates going outside but I have stuck large colourful windmills around the garden to entice him out! He seems to like them because it reminds him of th one on Teletubbies.

We go for long walks, take a picnic. Stop off somewhere for an ice cream or coffee and cake & a park. Goes down well here but we have always done it so kids are used to it!

I'd love to be able to utilise the outside space of a garden but I rent a flat with no gardens, so my daughter and I rely on local parks and countryside which we are lucky enough to have plenty of. A picnic is always a great was to encourage a whole day out in the fresh air and exploring outdoors. I also search any local events, great if free, being held in the parks too to add interest....treasure hunts, family fun days, fetes, food fayres, etc. My daughter loves being active so I always have a car boot of balls, tennis rackets, her scooter to avoid boredom. The sun also helps!

we try to get outdoors every weekend during day light
cricket is a popular game for us as well as football

We limit technology times (and try to make early evening so they get the best of the day first), and we just aim to get them out at some point on each weekend day/school holiday days.

Picking up a "tag along" attachment for DHs bike (basically turn it into a tandem with a child's bike on the back) really helped us still be able to all go out on a bike ride when dc2 was too old to be in a baby seat but not able to ride well enough to all keep up.

My youngest loves being outdoors but my 5 year old would rather be indoors so we have brought some seeds and she is going to planet them in the garden and we will make her a special area so she can dig and watch them grow

We take the dogs for long walks in the fields together as a family. My son loves running through the woods and the fields.he climbs trees and jumps in muddy puddles.We see rabbits pheasants and sometimes deer.Its so relaxing to enjoy the countryside and appreciate it. It gets us out whatever the weather.

We borrow my friends dog from time to time - he loves running around with him and throwing balls and we walk for ages - he gets lots of exercise and has fun at the same time.

I'd love for our family to spend more time outdoor, but we find it difficult to get outside. Once we get outside we really find it fun, so we just need to find motivation to get outside. My DD is learning a lot about animals, plants, and nature, so that is great inspiration to get outside and explore.

We've got a little park nearby so if I have both my sons to occupy for the day we walk to the park and have a play in the playground. I usually have to bribe them with a treat from the corner shop or a trip to the library to get them to leave! Luckily the library is just a 5 minute walk from our house as is an excellent charity shop. I find a little trip outside to get fresh air makes both my boys behave better when we get home

We do lotsof outdoor activities, drawing/painting on the patio, washing dolls clothes

My DS6 loves to hang around at school after pickup time and play on the field, along with some of his friends. I encourage it whenever we have time.

We have a dog so that is one of our main motivations to get out the house and go for a walk. Our kids all have waterproofs so we go out whatever the weather, we are very lucky we have lots of lovely local parks, national trust land and woods to explore nearby. My daughter loves the wet best of all so she can splash around, her and my son also love finding bugs and found a frog the other day! My eldest just likes football so as long as he can kick that along he is fine - on horrible wet days my husband also takes my two boys to our local goals Astro turf pitch for a good 3-4 hours with friends.

building an outdoor den and gardening are two ways that appeal to my kids to go outdoors.

taking some toys to the park also inspires and motivates them as does visiting a new spot of countryside for a walk.

We are really lucky; we have a t4 camper and national trust membership. As the Trust was a Christmas present, we make an effort to visit places and send postcards to the people who bought it us. We also get the girls (8 & 6) to do videos of all the different places we go so we have lasting memories. Being involved in Scouting means we also have plenty of opportunity to get out and about and lots of great skills to use..

We like to make long walks an exploring adventure - either to get seomwhere, or find something - and always take a snack or a flask of hot chocolate, or sometimes even the tiny camping stove to make hot drinks somewhere. Makes it seem more exciting!

We walk to and from nursery every day and we are lucky to have pigs, sheep, horses and chickens on our road. Every evening we have time in the garden, looking at what's growing, staring in the pond, just getting some lovely fresh air. It's just part of everyday life for us.

I’m a big believer of the benefits of spending time outside. I love it so I’ve always made it a priority.

We have a rule of no gadgets til 4 in our house. My dc would choose gadgets over anything else now even though they used to prefer being outside to anything else when they were younger. Thankfully, they’re still very willing to be outdoors.

We have play stuff in the garden which includes swings, swing ball and water play stuff in the summer.
They plant and grow flowers, herbs and veg and do chores like raking the leaves and mowed grass.

We go to parks a lot and take stuff like balls, frisbees, kites and picnics.
We’ll go for bike rides and walks in the woods too.

The kids belong to football clubs too so they’re outside a couple of times a week with that too.

Anywhere that trees can be climbed, dens can be built and sticks can be brandished is a hit with my three. If you have the right clothing and there's a hot chocolate at the end it's almost better to go out in bad weather - far fewer people about.

In winter it hat and coat on and the ride on toys out, in summer it's my garden set out, the trampoline and paddling pool is filled. We love being outdoors and feel lucky to have a small garden for games and gated driveway for ride on toys so my children can play safely all day. Its a precious time.
I am not sure how we would achieve outdoor play without a garden, I would probably go to my local park but would be worried about dog mess and drug paraphernalia being there.

Ours live going to the park and the woods. I have started to do a scavenger hunt list of things for them to try to find/look out for while we're out and about. If time is tight, they can go out in the garden for a bit. They both enjoy watering the plants and digging in the soil. We have lots of garden games too.

We try to go to the beach or a national trust site every weekend and play tag and chasing games to get the DC some exercise and fresh air.
We also go out on our bikes to cafes.

I signed mine up for Scouts. They absolutely love it and it gets them outside while learning new skills and making friends. They've found a love of archery, camping and rock-climbing.

They also get kicked outside to play on their bikes and scooters in the warmer weather. They love building dens in the back garden and happily spend a whole day out there and will come in, grab lunch and dinner and take it out to their den to eat it. They're on a campaign to be allowed to cook their own dinner over a campfire, like we do at Scout camp, and i may relent and let them this summer.

Winter is difficult to get them outside when it's freezing cold and wet, except ds who would live outside of he was allowed. To be fair though I don't like being outside when it's freezing cold and raining. We bring the outdoors in over the winter and build dens inside and have picnics on the rug.

We do walk to school and back every day so they walk over a mile every weekday in all weathers year round.