Raising Active Kids

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

The doctor we were seeing for my girl suggested that we increase her physical activity. I had not realised how physically inactive the kids had been. Their only activity is the once a week school gym classes which often gets cancelled to make way for more academic lessons as well as some running around at the mall. *Guilty*

The doctor suggested at least 30 minutes of physical exercises each day. So I incorporated "gym time" into our daily routine. How the kids love it! They love it to the max! We try to give them an afternoon nap that is no longer than an hour as suggested by the doctor. It is no problem getting them up as before because they look forward to their "exercise time".

So far, we have done skipping, long jump, high jump, cycling all within the confines of our little porch. We played mother hen protecting her chicks from the eagle which makes them laugh real hard. I give them coloured chalks and we draw a hopscotch or rivers to jump over. We challenge each other for long jump and use chalks to mark our jump. The kids love it. They cheat like mad and love it to the max. We sweep the porch together before playing and wash the chalk off afterwards. That is part of play too. One of them will pour water from a watering can while the other sweeps.

We have flown paper aeroplanes, played ball games and blown up ballons on a rainy day and played all sort of games with the balloons like how to keep the balloons in the air, or shooting balloons into hula hoops like a basketball game. We danced to music, played ping pong at my sister's house which was bigger and had a ping pong table. They tried badminton too at sister's but I am afraid that if they play at the porch in our home, the shuttlecock may end up in our neighbour's like the paper aeroplane and annoy them. :P

I realise one thing. Kids love physical activity and it is so easy to set one up. So simple. However, to do it on a daily basis like the doctor suggested, is a bit tiring for mummy who has to organise it. lol. I am trying to crack my head for more ideas and wish we had more space. Going to the park is not that practical for us for safety reasons and sometimes due to the weather but we will try to head there too as all kids love the park.

Anyone has any more ideas for physical activities for kids?