There was a time when daily chores, getting about town, and school physical education classes kept young people fairly active.

Today, with labor saving devices, carpooling, and reduced physical education activities in schools, parents must take up the slack in making sure their children are active. Children need to be active at least 60 minutes a day. If your children are not active that much, set 60 minutes as a goal to be reached within a month, two months, or even a year. Keep that goal in mind as, little by little, you find ways to combine sports and fun to bring healthy activities to your days.

Reasons Why Your Children (and YOU) Need to Be Active.

1. People who are physically active tend to:
2. Have more energy
3. Sleep better
4. Have increased resilience – are better able to handle stress and change
5. Do better in school – are more attentive (you, too Mom and Dad)
6. Better manage body weight
7. Be less prone to have Type 2 Diabetes, stroke and heart disease
8. Make friends and have the opportunity to improve socialization skills
9. Learn sportsmanship
10. Have stronger bones, joints and muscles
11. Promote healthy growth and development
12. Improve balance and skills
13. Maintain and develop flexibility
14. Improve cardiovascular fitness
15. Improve self esteem
16. HAVE MORE FUN!

Ways For Your Family to Become More Active 

1. Plan 10-minute exercise sessions with a goal of having at three 10-minute sessions per day, five days a week.
   1. Walk around the block.
   2. As you walk from one end of the block to another, challenge your child to run out and back; – see how many times can they do that before you get to the end of the block. (This way you have them in your sight the entire time and they get to use more of their, possibly, pent-up energy.)
   3. Spend 10 minutes playing a game in the yard – sometimes 10 minutes grabs a child’s attention and they will want to continue at the same or another game.
   4. Dance to several of your favorite tunes.
   5. Play catch.
   6. Create an obstacle course inside or outside.
   7. Jump rope, or just jump.
   8. Laugh for 10 minutes – make it a good, long belly laugh. If you can’t think of anything to laugh about, laugh anyway. It’s contagious. Or watch http://www.evo.hr/cat/ if you need a starter.
   9. Play Ground-Level Follow the Leader – the only rule is that you cannot stand up.
   10. Calisthenics: leg lifts, march in place, crunches, pushups – 10 minutes worth of moving your legs and arms
2. Track It
   1. Keep track of minutes of physical activity and play time. Make it a contest. Your ultimate goal is 30 minutes of exercise plus thirty more of exercise or physically active playtime most days of the week.
   2. Keep track of steps by using a pedometer. You can choose to keep track of all your steps in a day, or just those that you call “activity steps.” How? Keep track of your steps over several days. Make a goal to increase steps each week by 10% until you (an adult) are walking 8,500 steps a day. For children the goal is 11,000 per day for girls and 13,000 per day for boys. (Step amounts taken from the President’s Challenge at www.presidentschallenge.org). Consider challenging yourself to keep up with your children’s steps. It probably wouldn’t hurt.
   3. Keep track of distance. Challenge family members to cover a certain amount of distance each week to get you to a specific destination. A reward could be to actually go on that trip after you have walked, biked or ran the distance. As with steps, increase distance by no more than 10% a week. That way you will keep moving and improving with a low risk of injury. You can find a preprinted activity log at www.presidentschallenge.org
3. Do household and yard chores as a team. Each family member helps. 
   1. Wash the car
   2. Sweep/shovel the walk
   3. Rake leaves
   4. Pull weeds
   5. Plant a garden
   6. Sweep/vacuum
   7. Dust
   8. Neighborhood litter patrol
4. Walk your dog – if you don’t have a dog, walk your children, walk your self!
5. Take advantage of the big outdoors – for the sake of moving outdoors, or learn about nature, socialize with others, have a picnic.
   1. Go to the park
   2. Go to the beach
   3. Go to the pool
   4. Canoe, kayak, or row
   5. Take a hike
6. Sign up for a sport, group exercise class or to learn a new skill.
7. Set up your yard as an active yard – have lots of games and equipment.
   1. Net for volleyball, badminton
   2. Balls for catching, kicking, and throwing
8. Play outdoors in the snow: sled, ski, skate, build snow people.
9. Limit screen time: limit time in front of computer, TV and games to 2 hours or less per day.
10. Make it FUN!