As the gray skies roll in, will your kids get the playtime they need outside?At ConsumerBell, you know we love safety, and a study we came across gives us another reason to love it even more.The study says that the way a parent feels about the safety of their neighborhood impacts how much time their kids spend online and not outside playing.

“The availability of neighborhood parks and playgrounds, and how parents feel about their safety, influence whether children will watch less television and play fewer computer games after school,” says a PsychCentral article.

The study by Jenny Veitch, Ph.D., from the Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research at Deakin University in Australia, shows how important community design and safety design are.

But even if you do feel super safe about your neighborhood, how do you deal with winter weather or getting the family to participate in activities outside of the World Wide Web?

Some say that as little as 5 minutes of sunlight a day can help put you in a better mood.

Planet Green provides these tips for getting outside during the winter:

• Bundle up and go for a walk. Bring your camera and focus on capturing some images that will remind you of the beauty that still exists during the winter.

• Spend time in the snow! Whether you’re sledding or instigating a snowball fight, snow time will not only yield sun time, but you’ll feel like a kid again.

• Give winter sports a chance. If you can snowboard, ski, ice skate, etc. in the greenest ways possible (used equipment, for example), there’s a whole lot less harm in it and you’ll get your sun time in.

And our friends at Sixty Second Parent recommend looking for indoor play areas if the weather is too nasty to play in.

• If you have a safe, uncluttered area in your basement or garage, allow kids to wheel around on their scooters or roller blades (protective equipment still needed!).

• Encourage older kids to develop an indoor “par course.” Encourage them to be creative and feature “stations” for aerobic activity (e.g. Jump roping, running in place for 5 minutes, or aerobic dancing), strength training (canned goods work well as “weights”), and stretching.

See the rest of their tips on cold weather fitness here.

Getting some sun outside isn’t only fun and refreshing, it’s necessary to maintain proper health.
Dr. Alfred Lewy at the Oregon Health & Science University said Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can be avoided and even treated by getting outside more and spending time in natural daylight.

Seasonal Affective Disorder is a type of depression that happens during the winter months when the days shorten.

“SAD is avoidable,” said Lewy. “it’s as easy as getting outside more. For most people the key is getting outside in the sunlight.”

Lewy was the first doctor to treat a patient with Seasonal Affective Disorder with light.

SAD normally comes on around Nov. 22 for many people and it goes away March 2, said Lewy.

“It happens two years in a row and they know they’ve got it,” he said.

So get outside this winter and play safe.

What is your favorite way to play in the winter?