by Simon McQueen from FitKids
Has anyone told you that your children should be physically active for a minimum of an hour a day?
Sounds a bit daunting doesn’t it?
With a couple of fun activities up your sleeve, getting some extra movement time into the day can be something exciting and rewarding which can keep the kids engaged for entertained for ages. And perhaps even keep them out of your hair for a while!
Here are my top 3 ideas for adding fun movement activities to your day.
- Dancing in the ad breaks
I’m not going to say cut out the TV time, because I’m sure you’ve heard it all before and really, for most people it’s just not realistic! But here is something so simple and fun that can help make TV time less passive: Every time the ads come on, make a game out of dancing, jumping, hopping, spinning around – whatever your kids can come up with! If you’re watching a DVD, set a timer for every 15 minutes to stop and have a quick dance for about a minute. You know your kids will love it!
- Wheelbarrows, crab walks and bear walks
This one really speaks to your child’s imagination and feels like so much fun, yet it’s challenging enough to be a great little workout. There are a couple of ways to do it – one way is to just shout ‘bear’ or ‘crab’ and everyone has to stop what they’re doing and do some bear or crab walks for a minute or two. Another is to make it crab or bear day, and every time someone needs to walk along a particular section of the house, they have to do it in the designated way. We do wheelbarrows from the bathroom to bedroom on the way to bed after brushing teeth. All of these things take just a minute or two a day but add huge value to your child’s core strength and physical ability.
- Obstacle courses
One of the reasons why this is such a hit is that we don’t often let our children be silly with our everyday household items and furniture. Try it and see how much fun they have! Let them use your chairs, tables, benches, blankets, stairs and so on to create their own crazy courses. You may need to guide them with a couple of elements to include in their course, for example a crawling obstacle, a jumping obstacle, a balancing obstacle… But if they’re coming to Fit Kids they’ll show you more than you can show them!
I hope you enjoy getting a little more active at home with your children, especially with the cooler weather on it’s way.
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