1,000 Hours Outside Challenge | What Counts?

Are you embarking on the 1,000 hours outside challenge with your family?

If so, you may be wondering what counts and what doesn’t.

Good news is, there are no rules! You can do whatever works for your family!

The whole point of the challenge is to spend more time outside and less time indoors and on screens. With that in mind, here are some things our family counts (and doesn’t count) in tracking our time for the 1,000 hours outside challenge.

Things Our Family Counts - 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge

Time spent in nature (the most obvious)
Playing on playgrounds
Playing on splash pads or in pools
Time spent in our screened in porch
Walks in our neighborhood
Walking around a city
Walking around an outdoor shopping complex (like an outlet mall)
Time spent in our open garage
Walking around a zoo (outdoor attractions)
Walking around a theme park (Disney World, Busch Gardens, etc.), including waiting in outdoor lines and on outdoor attractions (more on this below – see the FAQs!)
Eating outside (either at home or at a restaurant)
Reading on a kindle or phone while outside
Time spent on a boat
Time spent on an open-air trolley
Time spent outside with only one parent

Things We Don't Count - 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge

Time spent in the car to outdoor destinations (i.e. drive time)
Time spent on indoor attractions at a theme park (i.e. Disney)
Time spent indoors at the zoo
Outdoor screen time (other than reading)
Outdoor time spent at school or not with a parent/caregiver

FAQs

Do you count going to Disney World (or another theme park) towards the 1,000 hours outside challenge?

Yes and no. We do count the time spent walking around Disney and any time spent outside, including eating outside, waiting in outdoor lines and even time spent on outdoor rides or attractions. We don’t count time spent waiting in indoor lines, eating indoors or indoor rides/attractions. There are no hard and fast rules, so it’s really up to you on what you count or don’t count.

But here’s why we count time spent at a theme park (when outside): Even though the primary focus (likely) isn’t nature, you’re still outdoors – moving your body and taking in sights and smells of nature, even if it’s small. This is similar if you live in NYC – the concrete jungle. Though you’re not surrounded by nature on a grand scale, you’re still surrounded by nature – the sun, the wind, the plants (even if scarce), the bugs, the birds etc. When at Disney (or any other theme park), we try to pay special attention to the nature that does surround us amidst the showy attractions. After all, most theme parks do spend enormous effort on their landscaping! Especially Disney!

Do you count outdoor screen time towards the 1,000 hours outside challenge?

Mostly no, with one exception.

Outdoor screen time would include watching a movie outside or watching YouTube on the phone/ipad while sitting on the patio. We do allow screen time outside – which we think is slightly better than indoor screen time. Children are still being exposed to outdoor sounds and smells. However, we don’t count this time towards our 1,000 hours outside challenge, as it does go against one of the primary objectives of the challenge, which is to reduce screen time.

The one exception we have to this rule is reading books on a Kindle or iPhone outside – we do count this towards the 1,000 hours outside challenge.

Again, there are no hard and fast rules to this, so each family can decide for themselves what they want to count towards their 1,000 hours outside challenge. This is just how our family does it!

Do you only count time the entire family is outside? How do you track time for multiple kids for the 1,000 hours outside challenge?

Since the focus of this challenge is really geared towards children, we track the time the child is outside, even if only one parent is present. We aim to spend outdoor time together as a family, but it’s just not always practical. For instance, one parent may be cooking dinner while another parent could be spending outside time with the child – and we count this towards the challenge! When it comes to multiple children, this can be done a few ways. You could only count the time spent outside when all the kids are outside together or you could track the time outside for each child individually (easier if they are older and can track their own time!).

Do you count the time the child is outside while at school/daycare/a friend's house, etc. towards the 1,000 hours outside challenge?

You can! Again, there are no rules! But we don’t. Our child is not old enough to track her time spent outside and we don’t have enough visibility to how long our child is spending outside while at preschool. If we did have the visibility, we would consider including this time towards the challenge.

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