Teach Your Kids How To Exercise
Teach Your Kids To Exercise
You are at home.
You have nothing planned and your kids are bouncing off the walls.
What do you do?
Get some energy out of you and your children by exercising together!
There are tons of ways to exercise with your children.
Here is a list of ideas!
1. Go Outside!
It's free, it's fun and there's tons to do.
In the summer you can go to the playground, go for walks, swim, go hiking and ride your bikes together.
In the winter, you can go sledding or ice skating or you can take your workouts indoors and go rollerskating or mall walking with the kids.
In the fall, you can rake leaves and take turns jumping in them. Searching for interesting leaves so you and your children can make artwork afterward is a nice way to spend some time with your kids while getting them outdoors.
In the spring, you can plant a garden. Let the kids pick an area that can be there own. Beans are very easy for kids to plant and grow!
Have a hula hoop race to see who can keep their hula hoop up the longest. My kids beat me every time with this contest.
2. Explore Your Town/City On Foot.
See new sights or old forgotten ones while walking.
Find out what your area is known for and go out and explore those places.
Go to websites that list the top things to see with kids in your town. Take a walk to see them. You will feel like a tourist in your own town and have fun with your kids.
We live close to DC. Walking from the metro to the monuments and through the Smithsonian museums is great exercise and fun for the family.
Picture of Obama's taking their dog for a walk as a family.
3. If You Have A Dog, Take It For A Walk Together.
Go to a park and play frisbee or throw a stick for the dog to catch.
Play chase with the dog.
We like to split up and run to opposite sides of the park so our dog can run back and forth between us.
As an added bonus, it wears the dog out too!
4. Teach Your Children Some Of The Games You Used To Play As A Kid
Teach your kids some of the games you played as a kid like catch, hide and seek or ring-around-the-rosie.
Try to remember some of the old nursery rhymes you used to sing while jumping rope and teach them to your children.
Playing video games can be physically interactive.
5. Interactive Video Games
There are tons of interactive video games that will help you and your kids to get moving.
You can play virtual bowling, tennis or running and jumping games.
Nintendo Wii has a nice selection of virtual movement video games that you can do with your kids.
Some of the Just Dance games and Wii Fit games are especially good for burning calories. A few of my friends get their workout from the Zumba program that works with the Nintendo Wii. They save money and don't have to leave their house to get a workout. It's fun for kids too!
6. Pop An Exercise DVD In And Workout With Your Child.
I have even found kids workout videos on 'On Demand'.
Look under the Kids Fitness section.
Most are Yoga workouts that you can do with your child.
They are around 10 minutes long which is long enough to keep your child's attention without them getting bored.
7. Ride Your Bike Or Walk
If you need to go somewhere close, ride your bike or walk to your destination instead of jumping in the car.
It will also give you time to talk with your child.
8. Have Fun!
The main thing to remember is to have fun.
Once you are out their with your kids, it will barely seem like a workout and you will be able to enjoy seeing your children play and have fun.
It's a great time to bond and also a great opportunity to take pictures to look back at when you are older and they are grown.
The Stretching Song For Preschoolers
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2012 Melanie Casey
