Foundational Education

You’ve been asking the right question. Just not the most important one.

You counted the minutes.

Forty-five minutes of bike riding. Thirty minutes at the park. Twenty minutes of tag in the backyard. You added them up at the end of the week, took a breath, and told yourself it was probably enough.

I did the same thing for longer than I’d like to admit. And I want you to know — it’s not a bad place to start. Movement is movement. Kids need it. There’s nothing wrong with outdoor play counting for something.

But here’s what nobody told either of us: counting minutes tells you how long your child moved. It tells you almost nothing about whether they’re actually developing. And those two things are not the same.

The question most of us have been asking is: are we doing enough? That’s a good question. But there’s a better one hiding underneath it.