Much like the postman’s creed, neither snow nor rain nor heat will keep one Wichita mom and her littles from enjoying the great outdoors. In fact, last year Teagan Lange spent an incredible 1,000 hours outdoors with 2-year-old son, Rhett. This year she’s aiming for another 1,000 hours — even with a newborn in tow.

“My husband, Wyatt, at the start of this, he probably thought I was crazy,” Lange said. “He did the math and he’s like, ‘That’s 3 hours every day!’ But now he has gotten on board, and he’ll go out and play with Rhett on the trampoline, take him on bike rides and hit golf balls in the yard.”

Rhett was only 4 months old when Lange first learned of a Michigan mom’s challenge for children to spend more time outside. Ginny Yurich, the founder of 1000 Hours Outside and a mother of five, reasoned that if children spend an average of 1,200 hours a year on devices (yep, and that’s on the low side these days), surely they could spend that much time outdoors. 

“We track a lot of things these days: steps, calories, budgets, frequent flyer miles, etc. Why not track something so beneficial to our children as well?” Yurich asks on her website, 1000hoursoutside.com. “There are so many things that compete for our time, so it's easy for something like this to get back-burnered. We found that if we spread these 4 to 6 hour chunks out over a few days (shooting for roughly 20 hours a week) it would take us to averaging about 1,000 hours of outside activity a year.”

For Lange, who as a kid always preferred being outside to watching movies and TV, it just made sense and fit her parenting philosophy. And though Rhett could do little more than sit in a stroller when she started calculating his daily hours outside, she said it created a good foundation to make outdoor time not only a priority, but a natural way of life. By the time Rhett was walking, the great outdoors was the only place he wanted to be. 

“When the weather’s nice, Rhett wakes up and goes outside. I make him breakfast and he eats outside and then goes back to playing,” Lange said. “We go on a 3-mile walk every morning and that takes about an hour.” The Langes are lucky that they have a fenced-in backyard, but they also go to parks, the zoo, Botanica, the pool and other outdoor spots.

Lange tracks hours on the 1000 Hours Outside app, starting the timer each time she and her boys venture outside. But before the app came out a year ago, she relied on the website’s printable charts to track hours. She still hangs a chart on her fridge and at the end of each day colors in the hours spent outside; it’s a nice visual for her and Rhett, she said. 

Since baby Ridge was born March 31, Lange has had to adjust her methods a bit, but now that the weather is pleasant he lays in a bassinet in the shade while Rhett plays. “For the most part he (the baby) just tags along,” she said. “He’s way happier outside. No one’s sad when they’re outside.”

Lange has invested in cold-weather gear for herself and her boys so they’re toasty warm, even when there’s a chill in the air. She says cool days are her favorite time to hit the zoo and parks because she can avoid the crowds.

Said Lange, “Anyone can do the 1,000 hours. It doesn’t have to be a big adventure. Just go outside.”