Darell Hammond: Saving Outdoor Play: 10 New Year's Resolutions for Parents

Common sense solutions to problems facing kids and parents today.

1. Limit your children’s screen time and set an example by limiting your own.
2. Allow your children at least one hour of unstructured outdoor play per day, rain or shine.
3. Explore nature with your children regularly, whether in an urban park, a national park, or your own backyard.
4. Teach your children those classic outdoor games that you played when you were a kid.
5. Step back now and then to allow your children to direct their own course of play and come up with games of their own.
6. Let your children go sledding, climb trees, and jump off swings. Exercise common sense while allowing your children the freedom to take risks.
7. Let your children build things, whether with tools, loose parts, or sand.
8. Speak up when you see forces that are inhibiting free play, whether they are school administrators limiting recess time or city officials closing parks. Participate in discussions on legislation and policy at national and local levels.
9. Map the state of play in your community and rally around your local playgrounds by using them, caring for them, improving them, and inspiring other parents to do the same.
10. Encourage physical activity in your family by walking and biking whenever possible instead of taking the car.