The easy-going, sunshine-filled days of summer may seem like a long and distant memory right now, but as tempting as it is to simply stay curled up with the kids in front of a cozy fire with a cup of cocoa, reading a good book, it’s important (for our sanity as much as their health) that we stay energetic and keep our kids physically active throughout the winter.
When Active Healthy Kids Canada (activehealthykids.ca) issued its survey results about the physical activity of Canadian children and youth this fall, the 2012 report card was cause for concern. The organization gave a failing grade because only 7 per cent of Canadian children and youth are getting the 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Furthermore, it found 63 per cent of Canadian kids’ free time after school and on weekends is spent being sedentary. From video games to fears around kids’ safety, there are a plethora of reasons that prevent kids from keeping active and the weather this season can add to this list of concerns.
There’s no doubt that this kind of sedentary trend is growing and the potential health consequences are scary. For the first time, experts are saying that our children won’t live as long as we will – and the thought of outliving my kids is never something I wish to consider.
So what to do?
Active For Life (activeforlife.ca), a proponent of raising healthy and active kids through physical literacy, is a good place to start if you’re looking for information, ideas and support to make positive changes for your family. With the support of some big name athletes (did you see the Vincent Lecavallier or Steve Nash PSAs?) and lots of real-life stories and advice from other parents, they are determined to spread the word about how giving young children basic physical skills (running, throwing, catching, jumping, balancing, etc.) can lead to those kids becoming active for life. Furthermore, the site specifically identifies which skills are appropriate for which ages and which sports/activities kids incorporate or use which skills. Why not use this winter to work on your kids’ physical literacy as well as their cocoa-slurping skills and use some of these ideas to find ways to get the whole family active, no matter what the weather.
Outdoors
When the weather allows for you to get outdoors, try:
• Skating
• Skiing
• Building snowmen
• Tobogganing
• Snowshoeing
• How about a family snowball fight?
Indoors, out-of-the house options
When the weather doesn’t allow for outdoor fun, there are still lots of options to find some energetic outlets at:
• Indoor playgrounds
• Swimming pools
• Or why not take the family 5- or 10-pin bowling?
• Most recreation centres run sports programs year-round, or you can find drop-in opportunities to try out
everything from squash or badminton, to yoga or dance.
At home
When you can’t get out of the house and you want to keep the kids from bouncing off the ceiling, there are still plenty of ways to burn energy and help the kids to work on some of their basic physical skills:
• A game of hopscotch (use tape to make a grid and a sock in place of a rock).
• Cushion islands (spread out cushions and get kids to ‘travel’ between them by jumping), or a simple
bean bag toss (socks into the laundry basket, perhaps?).
• Walking a tightrope (lay a skipping rope along the floor).
With a bit of creativity, you can all be enjoying some active fun. Add some Bobs & Lolo music and you
could be boogying along to Muscles or On Your Feet or perhaps dream of the easy-going, sunshine-filled
days of summer and do some pretend-pedaling with My Bike.
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