Making Your Family’s Summer Healthy & Active

Summer is here! Your kids are out of school and enjoying a newfound freedom. However, don’t let that freedom become boredom. Summer is the perfect time to get out and explore the outside world. Summer fun includes hiking, biking or running through the sprinklers. After all the activity your kids are going to be hungry. Use this as a time to offer summer delicisous fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks and meals.

Planning Activities

An important step to planning a healthy summer is creating active play opportunities for the whole family to participate in. Planning is the key to keeping your child engaged in the activities. Consider the time of day for each activity. It may be best to plan a long hike in the morning or late afternoon so the summer heat doesn’t ruin the fun. However, the middle of the day may be a perfect time to turn on the sprinklers (if allowed in your community) or blow some bubbles in the shade to cool off.

Choose age appropriate outdoor activities. Older children may enjoy a hike more than going to a local park. Whereas younger children would prefer a park with a playground over a hike. Remember to bring wipes and hand sanitizer to use often when touching surfaces, like playground equipment.

Summer Ideas

• Go Geocaching. This is a treasure hunt using your GPS or smart phone. Many times these treasure boxes are placed on hiking trails or in local walking areas.
• Find some chalk. Create a sidewalk challenge. From hopscotch to leap frog, create a course that allows your kids to have fun while getting physical exercise.
• Take a bike ride or go for a walk.
• Visit a local park. Find a park that you haven’t been to. Check to be sure that it is open for visitors. This will change the scenery and your kids will have different equipment to play on which beats the boredom.
• Make a kid friendly workout schedule. Create your workouts around your kids. A friendly competition between the family could be fun. How many push-ups can you do? How far can you run, hop, or skip? Form healthy habits together!
• Remember to wear your sunscreen.