Go out and play! Renewing our commitment to the Green Hour

I don't know about you, but where we live, the cooler, earlier nights are making it feel like fall already. Getting the kids back to school while simultaneously starting soccer season has added so much structure to our days that it's a wonder how we'll have time for anything else: meals, homework, weekend get-aways, bike rides, gardening, the music and foreign language lessons I vowed to get my kids signed up for this year, let alone just good old unstructured outdoors playtime.

The National Wildlife Federation has a great list of ways to 'Be Out There' (even though we're all deep into back-to-school mode), and renew our commitment to the Green Hour. Here in Portland, September tends to be lovely. So today I'm hanging my wash on the line (while keeping my fingers crossed that the rain, rain stays away), yet wondering how many more weeks I'll get away with using the solar clothes dryer. The garden is still offering many edible delights, but mostly mocking me (two years running my attempts to cage a tomato plant have failed, and the stakes I used for my raspberry vines? I might have had better luck with toothpicks for all the good they are doing!). Both kids also have soccer practice later, so I know we'll get outside today. But most days, we are making sure the homework gets done after school, and it's easy to forget that the great outdoors is often our best playground. That's why the bikes, trikes, sidewalk chalk, home-made hula hoop and lemon twist will remain outside with easy access for as long as the kids keep playing with them.

How important is the Green Hour to your family during the school year? Any special ways your kids like to spend their time outside?