It’s the long Summer holiday break, and it can be daunting to try to keep the kids entertained all day, every day, without having them sitting in front of the TV/computer/iPad for hours. If you manage to tear them away from their screens for a few minutes, here are a few fun and FREE ways to get active with the kids.
1. Make a ‘ninja warrior’ challenge at the park– set up a designated obstacle course at the playground (Swing across the monkey bars, run around the slide, through the tunnel, over the wobbly bridge and touch the tree trunk). Take turns running the course (grown-ups, too!) whilst timing on your phone. Try to beat your previous time.
2. Have a mini-Olympics – set up a range of Olympic events in the backyard, easy options including standing long jump, 10m sprint, discus (with a frisbee), shot put (with a bean bag), hurdles, boxing, totem tennis, backyard cricket, soccer – and anything else you can think of that’s active and fun. If you want to get right into it, you might even go to the dollar shop and buy some gold medals.
3. Make a family workout card game – Grab a deck of cards, and on a whiteboard or a sheet of paper, designate a fun exercise for each suit, e.g.) diamonds are star jumps, and hearts are pushups, clubs are squats, spades are frog hops – whatever number is on the card is the number of reps you do. Then each face card should be a different exercise, e.g.) Queen is a
sprint, King is five burpees, Jack is ten sit-ups etc. Take turns pulling a card out of the deck and workout for a set amount of time or until your deck runs out!
4. Go for a family hike – if you take a daily walk early in the morning or after dinner, you can avoid the hottest part of the day. Make it fun by seeing how many dogs/birds/flowers you can spot along the way. Big kids can walk, and little kids can hop in the stroller. If you want to make a day of it, find a destination, plan a hike and bring along a picnic.
5. Beach activities – If you’re lucky enough to be within a day-trip distance to the beach, endless activities can be done in the sand and water—Beach soccer, cricket, volleyball, frisbee, sandcastle competitions, swimming, and body-boarding. Don’t forget the sunscreen!
DONT FORGET – Kids can join your Fitness Enhancement Personal Training sessions for FREE!