Hellobee Boards

@macintosh: my DS is 2 (2.5 in January). I am pretty sure they get closer to 2 hours outside per day. 45 minutes in the morning, at least 30 in the afternoon and lunch and snack are outside so they can play once they are done eating. For lunch that adds about 30 minutes. (We leave ina place where you can eat lunch outside year round).

The other thing that helps is they go to music for 30 minutes twice a day and that is lots of gross motor Time. They play music and run aliens and pretend to be alligators and who knows what else. Even though it is inside, it is a big open room and they do a lot of movement. Do you have anything like that to help?

I have super busy/active kids and there is no way an hour would be close to enough. Honestly, for them the more the better, 2 hours would be bare minimum, but they would still be nutty in the evening. The days they are most settled at bedtime are the days we are out are the park for 4+ hours. It’s just not that realistic for every day. As a compromise I try to encourage “heavy work” at home in the evenings and get them “helping” with hauling laundry hampers, carrying bags/boxes of stuff, even moving furniture like out ottoman around the living room.

DS1 is 3 and he is at daycare from about 730am to 5pm. They go outside from about 745am to 830am when the school day starts. Then they have outside time from 10-1030am. Then they have outside time again at 2:30pm (lunch is at 11am, naptime is 12-2pm). They have outside time a final time around 4pm until 5pm or when it starts to get dark. Daycare closes at 530pm, so they bring the kids inside at 5pm at the latest and they do quiet activities until pickup.

And we STILL think our kids need more run around time! In the summer, we eat dinner and they get booted outside in the yard for another 30-40 minutes before bath. Now that its dark and cold, I admit we take them to the McDonald's with the PlayPlace more often because they can get some extra time to run around after dinner. We definitely notice the days when they don't get to go outside because of rain. By the second day, its like Bonkersville.

So, long story short, I feel like they need a LOT of outside time.

I don't think that's nearly enough. We live in an area where it rains a lot so there's a lot of flexibility in their day to day, but they have indoor play rooms they use if it's just too wet to go outside, and all total they spend roughly 3.5 hours (sometimes more) in one or the other. She's 2y 9m.

My 22m son gets about 2-4 hours a day - usually 1.5 hours in the morning with grandparents and 2ish hours in the afternoon.... my husband is a saint and takes him when he gets home from work around 3:30 (teacher).

Most of the time it is at various parks, and winter is mild here in AZ.
But for summer, we do a lot of time in our pool, friends' pools, splash pads, a local indoor playplace (small fee), the children's museum (membership), the science center (free educator membership), or a big church in the area runs a local "Tot Town" on Mondays (opens their gym, fills it with toys).

Around the house, my son likes to roll and unroll the carpet, literally run in circles, go through our various play tunnels incessantly, and jump off our headboard onto our bed repeatedly. We also have, at times, brought the Cozy Coupe inside and "driven" from one end of the house to the other.