We’ve now passed the halfway point on our challenge to spend 1000 hours outside in 2022. During the first quarter of the year we’d managed 186 hours 25 minutes outside which was an improvement on the 131 hours managed in the first quarter of 2020, the last time we took on the challenge.
The spring and summer months are always the easiest time to get outdoors and an opportunity to start catching up on hours after the slower start of the winter months. I knew from last time that catching up was not necessarily going to be easy. My aim was to get back on track by the halfway point of the year. Did we manage it? Read on and find out!
April
We were restricted to the garden for the first few days of April thanks to Covid, but the Easter holidays in the middle of April brought more opportunities for outdoor time. We enjoyed days out at Bekonscot Model Village and Chiltern Open Air Museum, went out geocaching and had plenty of trips to the park. April is a particularly tough month for us with the anniversary of Jessica’s death falling on 14 April. We try to #givejoyforjessica to help us through that day. One of our moments of giving joy was having a playdate in the park with Sophie bringing cupcakes that she’d made to give out to her friends.
Total outside hours for April – 94 hours 4 minutes (3.14 hours per day average)
My aim for April was to average at least 3 hours outside each day which we managed. We also continued to improve on our outdoor hours from 2020, managing 15.5 hours more than in April 2020)
May
May was our best month for outdoor time in 2020. Home-schooling outside in the garden helped us then but with our daily routine now being much busier, May 2020’s average of almost 4.5 hours outside each day was going to be a tough one to beat. 100 hours seemed a more achievable target.
With Sophie and I both being busy with rehearsals and performances in May (she had a dance festival and I was performing in a music hall show) and Thomas being unwell for a few days mid-month, we had to try and make the most of days when we could get more outdoor time. Fridays were the best days for outdoor time, helped by Thomas’s forest school sessions. Sophie got to join him for the last one of the month thanks to having an inset day. We’d also settled into a nice routine of Thomas and I spending time at the park while Sophie had her dance lessons, thanks to the lighter evenings.
Total outside hours for May – 100 hours 21 minutes (3.24 hours per day average)
We achieved our aim to get over 100 hours but were well short of the 138.5 hours managed in May 2020.
June
Outdoor events planned for the Platinum Jubilee, half-term days out and a sponsored walk gave us a strong start to June. Our target was to reach 500 hours total for the year by the end of the month which meant we needed to aim for around 4 hours a day outside.
We usually join in with #30DaysWild in June, which is a challenge by the Wildlife Trusts to spend time in nature. This should have made it easier to get outdoor time in, but it was a busy month for me juggling various commitments. While we did do a wild activity each day, it was often a bit half-hearted and shoehorned in amongst other things. I tried to work outside with my laptop where possible. Dance festivals and exams also made it harder to get in outdoor time some days. Thank goodness for forest school, our regular trips to the park, the preschool day out at Legoland, school sports day and summer fayre helping ensure we did manage a good amount of outdoor time overall.
Total outside hours for June – 119 hours 24 minutes (3.98 hours per day average)
An improvement on June 2020’s total of 106.5 hours but was it enough to reach the 500 hours target for the year so far?
Total outside hours for April – June 2022 – 500 hours 15 minutes (2.76 hours per day average)
Halfway through the year and we’ve managed to balance out the slower start from the winter months and be back on track. At the end of June 2020, our total was 454.5 hours so I’m pleased that we’re still managing to improve on our hours for last year.
At the start of the year we needed to average 2.74 hours a day to reach our target. The end of June is a little under the halfway point in the year, so that daily average has dropped slightly to 2.72 hours for the rest of the year. The summer holidays are a good time to keep the average up (provided it isn’t too hot!) so I’m aiming to reach at least 800 hours by the end of the next quarter, which will work out at an average of 100 hours per month for the next three months.
Are you doing the #1000hoursoutside this year? How are you getting on so far?
