Join the Fitness Craze With Your Kids

You see them everywhere - families shooting hoops in a schoolyard, Reebok-shod parents with infants in jogging strollers loping through parks and parents and kids on bikes or "blades" heading down the boardwalk. Getting fit doesn't have to mean time away from your child. In fact, being active with your kids teaches them to make exercise a lifelong habit.

Parents, along with health professionals wonder about our children's physical fitness. Our children are woefully out-of-shape. Let's face it, our kids watch too much television or sit for hours in front of video games and computers. We just don't do the physical exercise that our body needs. Here are tips to make exercise a family affair. Make this month a new beginning of fitness and have fun just moving.

Here are some fun ideas to share with your children:

Move to the music. This can be a fun indoor sport when the weather isn't conducive for outdoor play. Put on some lively music and create ideas for activities such as "pretend to be a bird hopping around and building a nest", "blowing like the wind as if you were a kite (carry a scarf and let it billow) or "pretend you are a professional dancer and put on a show." Anything is fun to do with music playing in the background.

Let the ball call the shots. Blow up a small plastic beach ball and write movement ideas (with stick figures) on the sections with a black permanent marker. Throw the ball to each other. Have the kids read the action by looking under their right hand when catching the ball and doing the motion marked. Agree upon the number of times to do each action.

Make fun exercise dice. Cover two square tissue boxes with construction paper and use these as dice. Draw simple exercises (stick figures again) on the six sides of one box and the number of times each exercise should be done on the six sides of the second box. Rolling both boxes tells the child what exercise to do and how many times to do it.

Jumping for health. The jump rope is one of the oldest childhood games in the world. Yet in our high-tech world, this classic game has all but become a lost relic. Let's revive the jump rope tradition along with rhymes your kids are sure to enjoy (think of the wonderful exercise they will be accomplishing). Your kids can jump rope singly or with friends using a larger rope. Here are several rhyming games that your children can recite as they jump rope:

Car within.

When I move out,

________moves in!

The jumper calls out the name of another player for the last line. That person then begins jumping.

"A" My name is Albert and my wife's name is Alice.

We grow artichokes and we live in Alabama..

The next jumper must then repeat the rhyme using the letter "B" and fill in "B" words (then continue to "C" and so on). Pity the jumper who gets to "X"!

Make exercising an incentive. By changing the "challenges" daily, children will be eager to see what's posted on the family bulletin board (say in the kitchen) and to be more interested in exercising. You may wish to let the kids make fitness necklaces or bracelets to be punched with a hole punch when a certain activity is completed. Use this idea to accumulate points for a special prize or treat.

Source: Personal experience with my kids, students and grandkids.

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