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| family fitness | photo: Evil Erin |
This is a guest post by Jeff Wise, the founder of My Family Exercise. Jeff believes, as I do, that family fun and exercise is important for the health of all members of the family. He has created a line of ebooks and a Kids Health Club membership site to help children and parents decrease stress and improve physical fitness in a fun way. For more information about Jeff and his programs you can visit his kids health and fitness blog or for daily advice follow Jeff on Twitter.
Even for a family like mine, with a
stay at home mom and a work at home dad, life is still quite busy.
There are errands, events, trips, and schooling just to name a few of
the daily activities. Even if the whole family is home all day there
are any number of things to do around the house every day with
cleaning, laundry, and did I mention kids? Put it all together and
it can sometimes be a challenge to get fitness on the calendar.
We
are a very health conscious family; having studied health, nutrition
and fitness for many years. We want to be able to serve one another
and our community for many years to come. This means we’ve got to
eat healthy foods daily and participate in regular exercise. I’ve
found some really easy and fun fitness activities for kids that we,
as parents, can teach our children while we're having fun too. You
may look at some of these activities and consider them normal, or see
them as nothing new. However they may be new ideas for your kids and
these activities will encourage physical exertion and family fun.
Fresh air and sunshine, combined with
physical activities, make for happy, healthy kids. I’m all for
traditional exercises for kids but there are other opportunities as
well:
1. Find a public playground – Kids
love playgrounds and so do parents. It’s a great chance for kids to
climb, slide, run and use their imaginations. Playgrounds can also
give parents a little mental and physical break (as long as the kids
are old enough to play without parental supervision).
2.
Stroll through your neighborhood – If you haven’t figured it out
yet, the walking possibilities are endless for families. After a busy
day, this option is the most accessible. It can easily be done after
dinner. And, since you’re not going far from the house, you can
really do it throughout the year.
3. Go ice or roller skating
– This activity helps with coordination and muscle strength. It
also gets kids' heart rates up. Just make sure they wear safety
padding.
4. Set up a relay race in your home or outside –
Designate a starting and ending point. Have them run around
furniture, crawl under tables or jump over objects. The path can
change with each race.
5. Do yard work together – Kids can
really learn the value of hard labor by working in the yard. Teach
them how to pull weeds, plant flowers and even mow the lawn. My
favorite idea is something I hope to start soon now that warmer
weather is coming. How about planting and working on an organic
vegetable garden? Not only do you get the benefit of exercise and
outdoor activity, think of all the delicious vegetables you'll get to
enjoy.
Again, these may seem normal and not traditional in the
exercise sense, but kids love it and it keeps them active; something
we want on a regular basis. Your kids aren’t going to do pushups
and other traditional exercises (which they may see as boring) every
day so why not have fun with these fitness activities for kids?
Make
a date with your kids and plan an activity each week. Be sure to put
it in writing; as busy parents it’s easy to forget or put something
off unless it’s written down right in front of us.
