Sometimes, convincing children to move from the couch is a real challenge. But now that the winter is over, there are no more excuses to stay indoor playing video games or watching TV. Kids should spend more time outside with their family and other children, getting some exercise while having fun.
Luckily, keeping your children healthy doesn’t have to be hard – and it may turn out to be fun even for you. It’s important that children see exercise not as something that their parents force them to do, but as something they enjoy doing.
Get involved in their games and play with them more often; try to make a routine so that have exercise for at least a few minutes every day. Long walks after a meal on the weekend can help to burn calories as well.
There are many fun games that you can do with your kids. As soon as the weather gets better, go to the closest park and get moving with one of these 10 activities:
1. Hide and Seek
A smaller park is the perfect place for this classic game. Three players are enough, but try to involve other children in the park to make it even more fun. Let the kids run freely and hide behind trees, benches, and anywhere else they can find.
2. Tag
There’s a reason this one’s a classic. In case you’ve been living under a rock, tag involves one child who is “it.” They must chase other kids by tagging them with their hand; the tagged person becomes the new “it” and repeat the process until everyone gets tired. You’d be surprised – kids can run really fast!
3. Frisbee
The most pleasant place to play frisbee is at the beach, but we’ll make do with a park. Just grab the disc and simply throw it back and forth with your child. Or, pick a target and practise your accuracy by trying to throwing the frisbee as close as you can to it.
4. Yoga
Yoga may sound too boring for a child, but it’s excellent for developing flexibility, coordination and strength. To make it more fun, create a story and let the children act it out through yoga poses like the tree, cat, cobra, and dog.
5. Capture the Flag
This game is best played with many people. Divide the children into two teams. Every person in the team gets a number. For example, there will be a 1 in team A and a 1 in team B. Line the kids up in front of each other. A judge stays in the middle with a flag in hand and calls out a number. The two kids who were assigned that number have to run, capture the flag, and get “safe” in their own line before the other child reaches the flag or captures it from him.
6. Fly a Kite
Flying a kite can be a very relaxing activity to do on a sunny day; the breezy days in spring are perfect for it. Go to a park and find an open area free of trees, hold the kite with both hands and wait for some wind to slowly raise the kite in the air. Running won’t help it fly, but it can make the things funnier.
7. Tug-of-War
All you need for this game is a good length of rope and a lot of strength. Make two teams with an equal number of people, draw a line on the ground, and start pulling the rope in unison. The first team that gets the members of the opposing team to cross the line wins.
8. Freeze Dance
Dancing is already a good exercise, but freezing makes it much more fun! Play a song and have your kids dance until you suddenly stop the music and scream “Freeze!” Whoever moves before the music starts again has to do undergo some sort of punishment.
9. Obstacle Courses
Use your creativity and assemble an obstacle course with hula hoops, cones, pieces of wood, etc. Anything can be used as an obstacle. Then, challenge your child to complete the course before you!
10. Catching Bubbles
Kids love bubbles. Don’t lie – you love them too. Make the kids line up and start blowing bubbles; it can be a competition to pop the most bubbles, or you can simply watch as dozens of screaming kids chase the soapy creations.
Photo: Flickr user Strocchi
