MMP Ep 322: 1000 Hours Outside with Ginny Yurich

Laura Bruner: [00:00:00] Hey friends! Can't wait till Wednesdays to get your Modern Mamas fix? Join us on Patreon. You can choose your tier, and when you subscribe, you'll get bonus content, early access to Retreat, first peeks at new swag, plus shoutouts and even real time monthly virtual

Ginny Yurich: hangs with us. Visit patreon. com forward slash modern mamas podcast to check it out and support the podcast.

It truly means the world to us. We are so grateful for you and for this community. I love my mama.

Laura Bruner: Hi friends! Welcome to the Modern Mamas Podcast. We are two modern mamas here to inspire,

Ginny Yurich: empowerment, self love, deep physical and spiritual nourishment, holistic health, open

Laura Bruner: minds, and joy, no matter your journey or perspective. I'm Laura of Radical Roots. I'm a certified CrossFit trainer, certified nutrition consultant, and mama to Evie Wilder and Indie Bow.

I love outdoor adventure, good food, especially sourdough, [00:01:00] and

Ginny Yurich: mindful movement. And I'm Jess of Hold the Space Wellness. I am a level one CrossFit trainer, a licensed and certified athletic trainer with a master's in kinesiology, and mama to Bear and Camille. I love food, trying new things, creating art, and being a perpetual learner.

Please note that while we're here to provide advice and insights, we aren't medical practitioners, and always recommend that you check with a trusted provider before implementing any changes. Thanks for joining us. We're so happy you're here.

Laura Bruner: Hi, welcome to another episode of the Modern Mamas podcast. I am super, super excited about this recording today.

Selfishly, I just really wanted to get Jenny on to talk about all things outdoor time, homeschooling, just the importance, the immense importance of getting kids outside and grownups. And so without further ado, I am so excited to welcome Jenny Yurich to the podcast today. Welcome Jenny.

Ginny Yurich: Hi, I want to say hi.

Like you did when you went. Hi. I almost went. Hi. I jumped the gun. I'm so thrilled to

Laura Bruner: be here. Laura. It's so good to have you. And that means a [00:02:00] lot. It means that my high elicits a response of a high. It must work. All right. So Jenny is a Michigan homeschooling mother of five and the founder and CEO of 1000 hours outside, which I know most of you have probably heard of.

It's been Wonderful in my life. Very inspiring. It's a global movement, media company, and lifestyle brand intensely focused on bringing back balance between virtual life and real life. She's the host and producer of the extremely popular thousand hours outside podcasts, a keynote public speaker and Zinnia enthusiast.

And I had the honor of coming on your podcast to talk all things van life and camping with kids. And that was a joy. I'm holding a master's degree in education from the university of Michigan. Jenny and her husband, Josh have been married for over 20 years. And our lifelong Michigan, Michiganders, they love raising their five children in the Great Lake State.

Well, 20 years, that's amazing. My husband and I are coming up on 10 next month. And that feels big. So I imagine 20 feels pretty, pretty

Ginny Yurich: big. [00:03:00] Yes. I mean, it's a long time, isn't it? Yeah.

Laura Bruner: When did you guys do anything? When, 20? We actually, we

Ginny Yurich: really did do something. Our, our anniversary was in June, but June's a busy month, I think for a lot of people.

So we actually took our whole family to Hawaii in March. It's something we'd always talked about doing and really from people that I've been talking to over the past couple years, we just bit the bullet and did it. And I'm so glad that we did. I mean, you're kind of nervous, like, is this worth it? Is it worth the expense?

Is it worth the time? Is it worth the hassle? And you just can't. You know, you, you'll always have those memories. So it was a phenomenal trip. We had a

Laura Bruner: great time. That's amazing. I'm a big core memory enthusiast. I feel like trips like that. I have core memories from my family's trip to Hawaii when I was in elementary or high, maybe on the cusp there.

And the husband and I were married. Almost 10 years ago. And when we got married we were like, we honeymoon in in Kauai. And we were like, we are gonna five year, five year [00:04:00]anniversary. We're coming back. And I was like, oh, 10 year. And now we have an 18 month old and yeah,

Ginny Yurich: actually Laura, that's exactly what we did.

Oh, we were like five you tenure. 15 year. Yeah, in 20 we finally did it. And even then it was a little tricky to fit it in and the kids are now in sports and different things, but we did it. And you're always glad you did it. You're always glad.

Laura Bruner: And I love that you brought the kids. And that's something I, we're just going to dive in here.

I, you know, traveling with kids. We talked a lot about that. I think a lot of people would be like 20 year anniversary. We're going alone, leave the kids at home. So what encouraged you or inspired you to bring them along for your 20th anniversary?

Ginny Yurich: Vacation. Now there'll always be time to go by ourselves, won't there, Laura?

Yeah. I mean, this is it. This is our chance. And, you know, everyone says that childhood flies by. So when you're in the middle of it, it does not feel like it's going to. And then once you hit, you know, seven, age of seven, eight, nine, then you start to think, okay, this thing's half over. And our 15. I mean, we're just on the cusp [00:05:00] here, right, right toward the end.

And so. Then you start to think, oh my goodness, I don't have that much time left, and, and I just look at my parents, I look at my husband's parents, and, and they're thriving, they're, you know, in that retirement age and, and loving life, but, you know, they're not taking kids on vacations anymore, and They're going by themselves, and they have been going by themselves now for several decades.

And so I know that that stage of life is coming, and we want to do what you're doing. We want to, like, go camping. We've got five kids, so we've looked at some of these camper van things, and could we do it? You know, the buses, you know, the buses that get converted, those things are so cool. So that's our dream.

You know, when the kids are grown, we'll get something like that and, you know, travel around by ourselves. But for now... We have them here with us and we want to capitalize on all those years. I love that

Laura Bruner: so much kindred souls. That's our, that's our quote unquote retirement plan. They want to get a, cause we, you know, we had the van and we did it with our little [00:06:00] or our biggest, but we want to just get a two seater and do a ton of that when, when the girls are grown.

Ginny Yurich: We can meet up 10 years ahead of you.

Laura Bruner: Perfect. You can show us all the good spots for just and we're planning it. We can walk to the ferry to hop on and get across the water to Victoria, where we live, Victoria, Canada. So we are, we're planning a single night away. It's been so long for our anniversary this year, but that I can't imagine longer, like one night.

And that would be my first night away from our little one. And I just, I agree. I think any longer, and it's not a judgment on anyone else's decisions, but I feel the same. It goes so fast. I want, for any extended trips, like, I just don't, I don't, I don't know who,

Ginny Yurich: you know, it's... Don't you want to take them?

Like, you want for them to see it? Yes. That's how I feel. And, and then you see it also through their eyes, and you're there as a family making these memories that they will always have, and you will always have. We did our, just recently, our first night away, too, and it's been a lot longer. Our youngest is pretty clingy, so she's finally in the age where she's out of that, but...

We did an overnight, [00:07:00] like one overnight to Amish country is what they call it here. Well, it's just Southwestern Indiana and it was so much fun. So just one night can be so rewarding. So I think in fun and just different. So we didn't feel like we needed. Two weeks away, you know, one night was great.

Laura Bruner: Yeah, for me, it's like, I just want to dinner out, sit at a restaurant, like, sip a glass of wine without chasing a mate.

Because my kids are so different and even we could just sit and enjoy meals for like an hour plus. And he's like, let's go. So, our family nights out, we like... Grab sourdough pizza and go to the park or like pack a picnic and go to the lake. But to sit at a restaurant is kind of a, it feels like a luxury right now.

A little luxury. Yeah. Totally. It's the simple things. Anyways, so I wanted my, one of my icebreakers, I wanted to just ask as we kick off that we've already dove in here. What, so we, I think I know your highlight of spring now that we're almost through summer, what has been one We, we do every evening at the end of the day, we do rose, thorn, bud, so highlight, [00:08:00] challenge what you're looking forward to.

So what has been a rose of your

Ginny Yurich: summer so far? We have this really cool place by us, Laura. It's probably, I think, I feel like it's like one of the coolest places in, you know, any length of distance. But there is this river that goes to Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is where the University of Michigan is. So it's this college town, and it's like this really vibrant college town, tons of buildings, but they also.

Really did a good job of preserving the nature there. So there's a lot of parks and there is a river that runs through Ann Arbor and The Army Corps of Engineers came in and at the spot where the river splits for a little bit on One side of it they built these nine cascading little waterfalls that you can ride and it's called the cascades is one of the coolest things.

It's one of our favorite things every single summer because the kids just wear their life jackets and you ride the nine little waterfall drops. It takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes. And then [00:09:00] you walk back to the top, and there's all these pools of water that are shallow that you can sit and play in, and these rock outcroppings that you can sit and talk to your friends, and so it's a, it's always a highlight of our summer.

I love summer. Michigan summers are absolutely stunning, and Just like little things, they really add up.

Laura Bruner: Yeah, I love that so much. I want to get out there at some point. We've never done Michigan, but I'll put that on my

Ginny Yurich: bucket list. That sounds incredible. Only come in the summer. Yeah, that's what I've heard.

Or the fall, the very beginning of fall. Yeah, okay.

Laura Bruner: Yeah, it's similar here. Obviously, significantly more mild, I assume. Summer is I've finally learned I've such like a I'm an Enneagram seven and like I want to travel and go all the places and do all the things in summer and this summer. I'm like, uh, I have canceled trips.

I have slowed way down. There's so much. We lived here for probably 3 years in October and there's still so much we haven't done and seeing there's lakes and rivers. And so it's been a great lesson and just savoring summer.

Ginny Yurich: Yeah, we do not. We don't travel in the summer hardly. [00:10:00] Yeah. We don't leave our state.

I love that.

Laura Bruner: Very cool. Okay. So I'd love to hear a little bit more about your story, how you came into this work with a thousand hours outside, what got you there just a little bit, you know, maybe a brief kind of overview of your story from your mouth. And how you

Ginny Yurich: got to this point. Sure. So, you know, this movement, someone was slamming it the other day.

Goodness for the internet. You know, this thing that was started by this homeschool mom, blah, blah, blah. I was like, okay. Really what it is, is it's something that stemmed out of my own failure, and I really struggled when my kids were little. I was not thriving, and our oldest three are less than three years apart.

So, you know, they were two, one, and a baby at one point, and, and even really from the very beginning, even when we just had one, I really struggled because I felt like every day I was failing, and I just didn't know what to do, and he cried a lot, and he didn't sleep [00:11:00] much, and... They're really long days, you know, back then, and it's funny how life has changed so much.

I think there's a lot of people that are working from home now, just a lot of different types of things. But back then, way back then, 15 years ago, it's like my husband had an hour commute each way to work. He was gone for 10 hours. And those days were so long and fairly awful. I would say, like, I was really in a dark spot being a mom of young kids.

And I had come out from being a teacher and I felt like, you know, I wasn't the best teacher, but. You know, you get accolades and parents are grateful and you know, you have these different coworkers and things. And then I plunged in this, the world where every single day I'm like, I'm failing like all throughout the day.

And then all throughout the night, it just never ends. And so I was having a hard time with it because I was excited to be a mom. But didn't love it, and didn't really know what to do with that. And so we had to enroll, because that's what other people were doing. Sort of looking [00:12:00] around to see how do people fill the time.

And the programs that we did were a lot of output. So I always talk about trying to get to the library program. It's like a, you know, running a circus. You're trying to get three little kids out the door. They're all still in diapers. They're, they were all nursing for a period of time, like all three of them.

That was bananas. You know, so they're all nursing. They're all crying. They're all in diapers. They all are in different size clothes. They're all, you know, this one's spitting up. You're trying to get out the door to go to the library. You've got your big heavy bag of books and you've got your diaper bag that's filled with them.

all these things for these little kids and you get to the library and you got to corral everyone through the parking lot and you got strollers and car seats and bags and I mean it's like this herculean effort I felt like sometimes and then you go to the library it's like 45 minutes and you know the kids they don't want to sit they're not paying attention.

You're trying to keep them [00:13:00] engaged. They're fighting over the toys. I don't know why they did that, Laura. They would always like do a big toy dump at the end and then all the kids are like fighting over the toys and You know, you're trying to nurse. I was just like a mess kind of And then you'd have to like do it all in reverse and I would get home and it would be like 11 a.

m You know, and I was just like I I don't know what to do with this and I would be exhausted And i'm still eight hours from my husband coming home. So That's how we spent the first several years of early childhood. And then, by happenstance, It's like the hugest blessing our life changed on a dime because I had a friend at MOPS.

So MOPS was another thing I was doing. MOPS is Mothers of Preschoolers, another program, and met twice a month and you're supposed to be able to drop your kids off and go sit and talk with other moms. So it was like a great program. Our kids always cried in the nursery, so they always brought them to me.

So I always had a crying kid, but at least I was with these other moms and I had a mom at my table who [00:14:00] was. planning to homeschool. We were planning to homeschool too. And so we kind of bonded over that and her child, her oldest child was one year older than our oldest child. And so she came to MOPS one day and she said, you know, I've been researching about homeschooling.

And she said, Charlotte Mason says that kids should be outside for four to six hours a day whenever the weather is tolerable. And I had no idea who Charlotte Mason was. I'd never heard of her. And it turns out, I found out way later that Charlotte Mason's from the 1800s, but that like wasn't part of the conversation.

We're just like, Charlotte Mason says this. So I just remember thinking that was the most outlandish idea. 46 hours because I would think about the library program. It being 45 minutes and how awful that was to try and corral the kids and keep them engaged. And so I thought, well, four hours, it would be like the library program, you know, just five or six times longer and awful.

But I ended up trying it with this friend because she asked me to, and I wanted to have friends. So I said yes. And we met at this park [00:15:00] all the way back now in 2011. It's been over a decade that we've been spending all this time outside. So back in the fall of 2011, we met at this park in Michigan. It was beautiful out.

And she said, just bring a picnic blanket and a lunch. And I thought, well, what else? What else should we bring? Because what are the kids going to do? Should we bring books? And should we bring balls? And should we bring, like, a water table? And maybe some Play Doh? But she said just to come and bring a picnic blanket and a lunch.

And I just thought, well, this day is going to crash and burn. It's going to be so awful. And what I tell people is that it was the best day of my life. It turned out to be the best day of my life because It was the first good day I had as a mom and I've been a mom for three years and I had not had a good day up until that point.

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Ginny Yurich: Enjoy. It really was powerful. Like our whole life changed in one day, Laura. I mean, it was unbelievable. The reason it was such a good day is because we spread out our picnic blankets and we were at a park. It wasn't a, it didn't even have a playground.

It was just grass. And so my expectations were [00:17:00] very low and the kids just played. And I didn't realize that That's going to sound so elementary, but I didn't realize that they could do that. That we could just go outside and that nature would engage them enough that they would play for hours. So she had two toddler preschoolers, I had two toddler preschoolers, four kids running around, and then we each had a baby.

And so the babies would nurse and sleep and sit on the picnic blanket and touch the grass and do things like that. And the older kids just ran around and when it was over, we stayed till one. We went from nine in the morning to one in the afternoon. I felt good. I'd been able to finish some conversations.

I just felt refreshed for the first time ever. I felt a little energized. I felt Calm and so then we went to go drive home and all the kids fell asleep in the car Which is like a miracle at the same time and by the time they woke up, you know It was two three four in the afternoon and then I'm you know, I'm close to dinner and I'm close [00:18:00] to The end of the day and it changed my whole life and it changed our whole family's Course that one day did and you know, it took a while like we we changed how we were living Immediately it took a while for me to really grasp all that was happening though Because I started to see it pretty quickly like the kids are sleeping better The kids are eating better, they're not fighting as much, we're happier as a family unit, I'm happier, I'm doing better, my mood is different.

So I started to see things actually right away, but the past 12, 13 years for me have been this, well it's not quite been that long, but anyway. My math is bad. Anyway, I used to be a math teacher, actually, so that didn't work out well. But anyway, since 2011, I started reading, and I have just read stacks and stacks and stacks of books about how simple natured time, so you can do things like you could make a scavenger hunt or you could put some effort in different ways, but [00:19:00] if you just go outside with your kids, and that's it, you take your blanket.

It does so much for everyone in every facet of their development. So it helps their cognition and their physical abilities, emotional state, and it helps with social skills, which are so important. And so you get so much bang for your buck out there, and This has been a journey for us. We've been outside for over 10, 000 hours in the past decade and have all of these core memories with our kids and it's really just enhanced our life.

Laura Bruner: Powerful. I love that. And the simplicity of it. You just go outside with your kids. Just go. That's as simple as that. That could be like the pull quote for this episode. Just go outside. And I've learned that so much myself and I've been so inspired by everything that in it, you know.

I feel super grateful that I was able to find people like you sharing your stories so that from the get go, that's been my MO and I really think it's, it's [00:20:00] formed the trajectory of my motherhood experience and made it. Overwhelmingly positive because we just spend so much time outside and it's, it's pure magic, especially my husband's a wildland firefighter.

And so this summer, you know, I'm solo a ton and I'm working and all the things that there are times when, if I try and open my computer to get an email answered and we're all in the house, no, there's no chance. But if we are outside and I just bring my laptop and I open it, I can get a few things done and then I can play.

And I am way more, it's just everything. Is he's here. So, and no doubt. And I'm sure, I mean, you talk a lot about how it impacted your kids and, but mentally and emotionally, I'm sure for you in that season, that was really hard. It's probably so many emotional, mental, mental health benefits

Ginny Yurich: for mom as well.

Yeah. And I think, I think that it continues to be that way. And this has been an interesting journey for me, like basically 1000 hours outside has really always just been. Me sharing my experience like I found something that worked for our family and it may not work for your family But [00:21:00] it worked for our family and actually for the first like I wrote about it for like several years And when I say several it might have been like six or seven where people were like That's the most ridiculous idea i've ever heard who keeps track of how much time they spend outside That's outlandish.

What whatever and eventually though people started to try it and for some families It works really well. And what's happening is just By having an intention, by having a goal, then it's at the forefront of our minds. And I make sure that it doesn't go by the wayside. I think outdoor time is something that's really easy to push to the next day or push to the next week and all these other things are pressing.

But it has worked for our family, and so what I've done is just shared our journey, and so now, like, I've got teenagers. And what's really neat, Laura, is that it is something that benefits the whole family. I mean, certainly it's benefiting the kids in tremendous ways. But also for myself, I got those moments of reprieve that I really needed when our [00:22:00] kids were little.

But now, I mean, I could probably go the whole rest of my life and never set my foot outside. Because they have older kids, and they can play indoors, and they're just at an easier stage. So now, it's keeping me accountable to make sure that I'm having these experiences, and I'm getting outside and exposing myself to the morning sunlight, that type of thing.

So there's been this little bit of a switch where... By spending the early childhood years that way, I almost feel like it's protecting now this next stage of life where it would be very easy to not go outside because I'm not quite so desperate for that sense of relief, if that makes sense. 100%

Laura Bruner: learned the power firsthand and now it becomes a priority and it's the same for me.

Just two days ago, I woke up, it was the full moon and I'm sure that played into it, but I woke up and I was just like, we called it a low patients morning. I just had, I mean, I was going on day 14, 15 solo with them. And I just, every little thing I was like, what is going [00:23:00] on? Why is my patient soul? So like short right now, my fuse.

And so Evie was off to forest school. She had a ride thankfully. And then I just got in, David just went to the water and walked along the water and it changed the entire trajectory of my day. And I feel so grateful to have those tools for both of us. It was great for her. Then she napped awesome. And, you know, There's just so much power in that and just knowing having it become habitual versus something you have to like reach for.

I think the habit of getting outside every day little by little, you know, people always talk about the importance of habits and how, I don't know how many times does it take to do something? I forget, but if going outside becomes habitual, it changes everything. And what a gift you're giving to your kids to make it, you're creating that habit, helping encourage and, and, you know, create that habit for them at such a young age that it's going to then carry that with them for a lifetime.

Ginny Yurich: Yeah, sure. You certainly hope that they use it as a tool, like you said, that they'll have times in their life that. That are difficult and times maybe when they're grieving and times when they feel [00:24:00] lost and all those different things and nature is always an answer. It's always a place that someone can turn to, to find respite and to find restoration and to find hope, I feel like.

And so yeah, I hope it's a tool that they take with them, whether they spend this much time outside as adults or not, I, I don't know. That'll be up to them, but at least they'll have had that kind of in their bones, you know.

Laura Bruner: I love it. In the bones. Awesome. Okay. Well, you've touched on this on multiple occasions over the course of all the sharing that you've done, but if you were to kind of sum it up,

Ginny Yurich: perhaps elevator pitch, let's say,

Laura Bruner: what's what, why is nature so important for our kids?

If you were someone just to be like, Hey,

Ginny Yurich: sum it up for me. Yeah, I had no idea that it was important. I just thought it was a frivolous thing, but here's, here's what time in nature does for kids. It helps their cognition. It helps their emotional state. It helps their physical bodies and it helps their social skills.

And so it's a place to go where you can find a whole child development that is specifically suited for the age and stage of [00:25:00] your kid all the way throughout their childhood when they grow. And so that's the power in it is that it meets your kid where they're at. And so it doesn't matter. Even what their abilities are and we have differently abled kids and all sorts of things.

Nature will meet them where they're at and, and it will help with their development. And so it's extremely important. You know, it's, we got kids that are sitting for most of the day and schoolwork. That takes up mo really, it takes up most of the day, seven, eight hours. Kids are coming home with homework and we're.

Overemphasizing that, I think, to the detriment of the whole health of our children. I could not

Laura Bruner: agree more. I taught, as well, I taught high school. English and I had some AP classes that I was teaching and I just couldn't believe these sophomores and the stress they were under and they were emailing me at two in the morning saying, you know, I'm just getting to the reading and I just want to be like, go to bed.

Don't, don't you dare. You know, if you're at past eight, I just, I can't. And that's why we're planning to take the homeschool route as [00:26:00] well. Sitting in a desk for that many hours a day, being forced to do that much bookwork and so much of it. I mean, I had a DVA. It's very intentionally deviate from the curriculum that I was like, quote, unquote, supposed to teach because I, I couldn't justifiably ask kids to read that many chapters and expect them to retain the information and sit for that long.

These kids are supposed to be out running. They're so babies. I mean, a sophomore in high school. I just, so anyways, I feel that to my bones. It's the number of hours sitting in a desk among so many other things. It's just something has to shift. And so I feel like the work you're doing. Just by, if we could just get enough people even getting their kids outside.

Say, your kid has to go to regular school, fine. I mean, again, no judgment. That works really well for some kids and some family units, but prioritizing the outdoor time around that even is

Ginny Yurich: so powerful. Yeah, yeah, so in, in those different situations and like this, I just talked to this woman named Dr.

Victoria Dunkley and she wrote this book called Reset Your Child's Brain. It's a really good one. It's about screens. There's some interesting things in there that I hadn't read before and [00:27:00] hadn't heard of and She says that she writes prescriptions for kids to not have any homework Like that is a little bit of what the key is is that look, okay Like you said people are in different situations.

If your kid is going to the school for for the majority of the day Like let him skip the homework. I don't know, you know, she says just call up and say we don't do that Yeah, it feels radical but I think Like you said it's like some something's got a shift Someone's got to stand up for these kids. It's really not good for them to be sitting for so long and all that stuff like all that time It's too much.

I just want to say it's too much time. And I taught high school too. Ironically, I taught math and then I couldn't subtract back to 2011, but you know, it's too much time. And there, I always talk about, there is this teacher, also a high school teacher named John Taylor Gatto. And he wrote some really transformative books.

He passed away in the past couple of years, but he was like, you know, 30 year [00:28:00] New York state teacher of the year. And he won all these awards and. He said that it's well documented that it takes about 50 contact hours for kids to learn functional literacy. So functional literacy is the ability to read, write, and do math well enough so that you could learn anything you ever wanted to learn ever.

So it's the right age and stage, right? So maybe when a kid is nine or maybe when they're 12 or maybe when they're seven, it's different for every kid, but it takes about. a week and a half to get this foundation so that they can fly and they can learn all these other things. And so it's, to me, there's people, you know, it's, it's such a tricky situation because the choices that we make for our kids education are, are very filled with emotion.

And so, like you said, it's like, you don't want to come here and come down on people, but, but I do think we have to discuss the time component, because if we only need a week and a half to get these kids to the point where they can learn whenever they want to learn, and then You know, we take 15, 000 hours [00:29:00] of their childhood for this purpose of education, then at the very least, we don't need homework.

Like that's kind of my point, like, we don't need the homework, like they are, 15, 000 hours has already gone to it, like that's enough, 40 hours of the week, that's enough. Let them play.

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That's F O R I A wellness. com forward slash ModernMamas for 20% off your first order. Enjoy. Would you say that you're seeing a shift? I mean, you're in it and you're watching people, you're inspiring people. And obviously your whole platform and everything you're offering, it's growing and expanding and reaching new people.

I would say just from my perspective that I'm seeing a general shift, but then I don't know if that's just the bubble that I exist, but where people, parents are becoming a little bit more radical and, and

Ginny Yurich: finding, I mean, I get emails and. I get emails and messages every day from parents who say, I'm making this choice.

I made this choice. I listened to that podcast episode. We changed. I actually, Laura, I met this, this family at a conference recently. This was [00:32:00] actually the only time I've ever heard this. And they came up and they said, You have inspired us to sell our home in the city, and we're moving to the country, to this plot of land, but we have no home there.

I was like, oh, I don't remember saying that. Don't blame me. I hope it works out really well. But yeah, I think so, you know, I think little by little culture changes, and I think that as we are brave, And as we speak out and we say, look, we're not doing homework. And, and we say that to our neighbor and our neighbor says that to their neighbor.

And I do think stuff catches on and sometimes it takes a while. But I think that we do have the power as parents to change childhood, not only for our own kids, but also for others to help at least pave that way. I love it. So

Laura Bruner: inspiring. Starting to hear my little one in the other room, but my husband's in there.

So hopefully she settles back down. I love it. Okay. So on that note, you know, we're talking about school and the number of hours kids are spending in a classroom and just like the, I mean, [00:33:00]the busy work is like, it makes my skin crawl when I even say the word. Cause it's like, just why on earth would we Intentionally make our kids busy.

They're so studies have showed how powerful and impactful it is for them to be quote unquote bored and like Find things to do and and it's just it's so important. So I want to talk more about then Your alternative route because you've homeschooled and we get questions about homeschooling all the time It's something that i'm going to be diving into fall 2024.

We'll really kick that off We've kind of done a little bit of the unschool. You

Ginny Yurich: already actually are homeschooling though. Laura. Yeah, you're

Laura Bruner: doing it right now

Ginny Yurich: Our homeschooling. Thank you. And I think that almost every parent has homeschooled, you know, every parent has homeschooled really, you know, even if it was for the first six weeks or the first eight weeks, everyone's homeschooled a little bit.

I love it. Yeah,

Laura Bruner: absolutely. And so what route did you take? Like you have your a thousand hours outside a year. Are you sitting down with them for a certain number of hours a day and like book learning? Is [00:34:00] it primarily just like getting it outside and letting them explore their natural world as a combination?

And I know you have some resources as well, curriculums and whatnot. So yeah, it's a

Ginny Yurich: combination, but our general approach is that. We really want to help the whole child develop. And so that happens in a myriad of ways. And so yes, we do book work and we do some seat work and we read together. We read out loud and we read good books and they have a math curriculum, but all of it doesn't take very long.

So even with five kids, maybe it takes two to three hours, even with a high schooler, there is not that much that needs to get done. Let's say it takes three hours Well, there's still a whole lot of the day left. And so what it does is it just provides you with time I think that's always been my biggest thing since we sort of shifted how we were rearing our kids is Understanding that kids need time We all need time But kids need a lot of time to develop who they are [00:35:00] and to develop their thoughts and to develop That john taylor gatto says inner resources.

Like, can we draw from our inner resources when we're bored, when we're alone? What do we have down in there? And so I think if we co opt all the time, it leaves kids kind of lost and they have a, they have struggles when they graduate. And I just was talking to, this is a big change I think in the past 10 years or so.

And I think because we've taken so much of our kids time, they're not good at making decisions, and they're not good at risk taking, and they're not very good at social relationships, because we have, as adults, like, directed all of their day to day goings, and I think it's well intentioned. It seems like it should be right, doesn't it, Laura?

Like, doesn't it seem like, Look, I'm 20 years older than this kid. I'm 25 years older. It would make sense that I would direct all of their time. But, Dr. Peter Gray says, Kids are biologically designed to self [00:36:00] educate. That's how they come into the world. And, We see that when they're little, but I think because you put them in school so young, we forget that no, they have an inner drive.

They want to learn and they have specific things that they come in the world that they're passionate about. Sometimes you can see that at really young ages, you know, even as a two year old or a four year old. I mean, certainly by the time they're seven, eight, nine, you really have a good sense of. Um, who this child is and what they want to bring to the world.

And so it just goes back to that time component. I want to make sure that our kids have time to learn who they are, to explore a bunch of different hobbies and interests. And I think that that sets them up for a life that is very enriching and fulfilling for them and one that, that they are capable and that they have different skills.

So I talked to this Dr. Jean Twenge. She wrote this book called Well, she's written a lot of books, but one of them was called [00:37:00] iGen, about the internet generation. And she says, as a college professor, that she gets college students that can't even make simple decisions without texting their parents. And so, that's sort of where we...

end up if we take all the time from childhood and don't leave some for them. I think we end up with kids that are anxious. We end up with kids that are depressed. We end up with kids that don't know how to make decisions and that really struggle in their day to day lives.

Laura Bruner: And all that and your parents always have the best of intentions, but in seeking to like push them ahead and get them further and make more money and get that house and pay off those loans for a system that's broken.

I could go on a tangent. It's such a disservice. And I say that with nothing but empathy and love.

Ginny Yurich: Yes, I know. Like you said, it's, it's just misguided. Yeah, it's, it's misguided. Like we're all coming at this. With the thought of, I want my child to be successful, that's what we want, and I think we're sold, [00:38:00] or culture has shifted, to be this thing that makes it a competition, that makes it this race, this race to college, and you know, we are living in this very rapidly changing world, and I even feel like All the emphasis on STEM learning, like the science, technology, whatever the different things are.

And coding, that was a big thing. Well, coding is being taken over by the computers. So I just think we can't focus so hard on these academic things because all of that is changing rapidly. Like, what I want is I want my kids to be creative. I want them to be flexible. I want them to be able to insert themselves in different work situations because the current research says our kids are going to have four different careers within the first decade of graduating from college.

So, that's a lot. People used to have a career that lasted a lifetime, and they don't anymore. So, they're going to have all sorts of different colleagues, and I want them to have quick, adaptable brains. Well, all of these things [00:39:00] happen. as a result of free time. That's what they come from. A quick adaptable brain doesn't come from your worksheet and social skills don't come from sitting at a desk.

All of it comes from that inner play, that sort of messy time that we're with other people and we're rubbing against the rough edges and we're trying to compromise and we're trying to negotiate. All of the skills I think that we need for our kids heading into a rapidly changing future, those happen.

Outside of the four walls of the classroom. And so I think that we just are misguided and it just, it's like nature doesn't advertise. So, but the, you know, the tuba lessons do where the French class does, like everything else advertises, but the trees don't. And so. It's one of those things that's really easy to forget.

That's why we have a goal I have a book coming out in november called until the streetlights come on How a return to play brightens are today and prepares kids for an uncertain future And I think what I have learned over the past decade is [00:40:00] that we can have a really good and fulfilling today And that still prepares our kids for tomorrow.

I think so often we sort of sacrifice today on the altar of tomorrow. We think, oh gosh, I've got to get my kid ready for this and that and they're three and are they gonna, you know, if I don't get them in the soccer now, then they're gonna be behind and there's this sense of fear and sense of Rush and worry, but I do think that if we live full lives today, that is what prepares us for the next day and prepares us for a full future, especially in a world that's changing like ours is.

Dang.

Laura Bruner: I'm like typing, rapidly typing, just like the words that you're saying, because they're so powerful. And I can't wait to get my hands on that book. That's going to be amazing. When does that come out?

Ginny Yurich: It comes out in

Laura Bruner: November, November. Okay, cool. Well, I will be sure to grab my copy and share with everyone that will listen because that's huge.

And you know, you're talking about like this rapidly changing world, but one thing that we know is not going to change is the nature around us. So it's like to give ourselves and our [00:41:00] kiddos like this constant in a world that's forever changing. There's something to put our literally put our ground us and put our feet on.

That's not going to change when everything else can feel so out

Ginny Yurich: of control. Right. And child development does not change either. Mmm. It's always the same. Well, there's,

Laura Bruner: there's, if you need it, there's proof that those two things should coincide and coexist, you know, developing and nature. And I know I, myself, since I've prioritized it even more, I feel like we never stop developing even as.

Humans, grownups, I mean, and so absolutely to get ourselves outside too. My mental health has improved so much. Has improved about my whole mm-hmm. , my whole

Ginny Yurich: world. So, yeah. And I think in this day and age that we live, we need it too. And I, I think that's a good point, Laura, because decades passed, actually only the kids would go out, right?

The parents would stay inside. They'd be doing work in the house. That's how I grew up. People would block their kids out and, and the parents would stay inside. A lot of times it was moms and I. Sometimes would be jealous of that. Like when I became a parent, like I wish I could [00:42:00] shoot my kids out the door.

There's no, but there's no one else for them to play with because none of the other kids are outside. But so, but what I've learned is this is really enhancing my own life too. So I think that's what's going on in our culture. Like it's needed for everyone. We're in a really technological age. Like I'm sitting on the computer with you right now.

So we need that balance as well. And it's something that helps the whole family. I love it. And

Laura Bruner: there's that beautiful, that beautiful situation where like the technology is bringing us together and allowing you to get this information out to the world. So it's, we see it, we acknowledge it, we embrace it where we need to, but you, we have to, I know I personally have to find that balance and spend more time outside than staring at a screen.

Yeah, for sure. I love it. Okay. Well, before we head out, I know you have so much going on. Summers are crazy. Are there any resources that if someone was like, I need to learn more right now, that they can just go type into their browser and find you and learn more and continue to

Ginny Yurich: share. I, like I said, I was a math teacher, so I'm not very creative.

All of my things just say 1000 hours outside. So we're 1000 hours [00:43:00] outside. com 1000 hours outside podcast. We have an app, a mobile app for iOS and Android. That's a top rated app. It's like. 2. 99. It's a really cool one. Track your time. Have a little journal. It's called the 1, 000 Hours Outside app. And then I actually have three books called 1, 000 Hours Outside.

So that's really weird and goofy. But the new book has its own title. So that's exciting. And that's coming out, like I said, in November. And then I don't know. I don't know if there's other things to 1000 hours outside podcast. I

Laura Bruner: mean, I feel like that's not a lack of creativity. That is brilliant simplicity, which coincides beautifully with everything that you're sharing.

It's like, let's keep things simple. Find everything in one place. And I know I have a number of friends who printed your trackers and have them on their fridge. And I just, it's free right on our website, print them, pop them on your fridge. I know you can like color them in the kids can have fun. So wonderful.

So thank you for doing everything that you have. Thank you for inspiring parents to get outside. Thank you for, [00:44:00] I mean, in your own way, you are changing the world and I cannot say how grateful I am for that.

Ginny Yurich: So thank you. Well, thanks, Laura. I appreciate those kind words. I love what you are doing. I love the podcast episode that we did together and it's always great to connect.

Laura Bruner: Love it. Okay. Well, enjoy your day. Enjoy the rest of your summer. And I'm sure

Ginny Yurich: you and I will chat soon. Thank you. And we'll see each other in 20 years. I can't wait. Thanks for listening to our podcast. See you next time. Thanks podcast. See you next time. Bye.[00:45:00]