Things to do With Kids
Calorie Burner Chart: Do you want to know how many calories you can burn in an hour while you're dancing to great songs in your iPod or MP3 player? This Calorie Burner Chart from the USDA's Food and Nutrition website can tell you.
'Fun Fit Bits'
Here are some activities that can become daily habits with your kids! Before you know it, you've added 'bits' of daily exercise that are fun for the whole family.
- When taking the kids to the store, walk if the store is close by, or if you have to drive, park further away in the parking lot and walk to the store. Talk about safety, how to be more aware of your surroundings, etc.
- At the shopping mall, walk once around the entire mall once you get there, before you go into your first store. Or, walk once around the shopping mall before you go home. If the mall has multiple levels, go around each level once! Take along a pedometer and guess how many steps you'll complete on this shopping trip!
- While you're at the mall walk through the food court and ask your kids to tell you which eating place has the healthiest menu and why.
- Do sit-ups with your kids in front of the tv during a commercial. A McDonald's hamburger is 206 calories. Doing 5 sit-ups during each commerical break is a good start. (A child weighing 85 lbs., would have to exercise for an hour doing push-ups, pull-ups, jumping jacks and sit-ups to burn off those hamburger calories!) A great tool for calculating food calories and calories burned is at CalorieLab. You can make a game of burning off calories each night during tv time!
- Walk around different parts of the neighborhood each evening or on Saturdays and have an animal hunt or a house hunt. With an animal hunt look for a black cat, a yellow dog, a red squirrel, or a striped cat, etc. With a house hunt look for different colors of houses or doors, wind chimes, porch swings, door decorations and yard art.
- Check to see if you have a nearby park that has a hiking trail or bike path that you can walk on with your children.
- Most cities or towns have art walks once a month, usually in the evenings, but sometimes during the day on Saturday. Make a 'family date' by going on one. It gives you a chance to get some exercise with your kids as well as help them to learn more about different types of art.
Track Your Fitness! The USDA has just added an additional tool for parents who are looking for ways to make lifestyle changes that will keep their families healthy and fit. Here is a great progress form that can be used to track your family's success with their nutrition and physical fitness goals.
Workout Out With Kids: There are seven different ways that you can work out with your kids in this article from Foodfit.com, including "Kangaroo Walk", "Track Time" and "Playground Health Club". These ideas are not expensive and will provide a great opportunity for bonding with your kids!
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