Going Outside in Spring (ahhhh the mess!!)

[mickyc]

I would love some input on when you take your children outside to play.

Currently I take my group outside in the morning from 10:30 - 11:30. Now that spring seems to finally be here I have been thinking about switching it. My home is currently for sale which means I could get notice at any given time that my house is going to be shown that evening. For the most part we haven't had much traffic come through yet and my realtor has given plenty of notice. Today when we came in the kids were covered with a mixture of snow, grass, water, mud . I got them to leave their boots outside but still there is a big mess at my back entrance. My thought it to maybe switch our outside time to 4-5 and then the kids would be picked up while outside and it would greatly reduce the mess in my house. My driveway is gravel so right now with the mornings being cold there isn't too much mud tracked in by kids and parents but at the end of the day will likely have parents with very muddy shoes coming in to pick up kids.

Another nice thing about going out in the afternoon is the temperatures are warmer which would also reduce the amount of clothing I have to dress kids in.


There are two reasons why I am hesitant to switch. One is because I find the kids nap better for me after having an hour of fresh air and second is because pickup time varies from 4-5 so some kids would only get 10 minutes outside, sometimes no time at all. I would feel guilty not giving them time to play but I don't want parents purposely leaving them here until the end of the day so that they get time outside.

What do you think? What do you do this mucky time of year?