*This post was sponsored by Boys & Girls Clubs of America as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own
As a parent of six little people, there is no way you can convince me that happiness in not linked with activeness in children. When my children are active and moving their mood improves by leaps and bounds! Aside from when they are just plain tired and need to take a nap, I have learned that most of the time my grumpy or whiney kids need to get up and get active to improve their mood!
Even when we lived in Michigan during the cold winters, I made sure that the kids had plenty of time moving their bodies every day. Getting active obviously improved their mind, body, and soul. Those days that they were active they had better appetites, better sleep habits and better attitudes.
Too often children don’t have the encouragement they need to get up, get active, and make healthy choices. Boys & Girls Clubs of America does a fabulous job of helping kids answer the question, “I feel better when…” This simple phrase can lead to small, daily behavioral changes which will have a long-term, lasting impact. Triple Play is BGCA’s leading comprehensive health and wellness program that serves young people at Boys & Girls Clubs, giving them the tools and awareness necessary to put them on the path to a great future. National support from the Amerigroup Foundation and Coca-Cola make it possible for Boys & Girls Clubs around the country to operate Triple Play.
Every day we try do one of these three activities with our children. Jon and I believe that if we participate with them it will not only enforce the positive habit of an active lifestyle with our children, but become an opportunity to bond as a family and create some pretty awesome memories!
Backyard, Frontyard, Any Yard
We spend as much time as we can playing in our backyard, riding scooter and bikes in the drive way, playing basketball and catch, or a classic game of tag with our kids. If it’s not raining and not freezing we are outside! Even our dogs join in on the fun!
Dance Parties
When the weather is not so great or it is too dark to play outside, we turn up the speakers and dance in the family room until we are out of breath! Every single on of our kids love music. It is not uncommon to hear them singing their own theme song music when they think no one is watching.
Recently, I caught one of our family dance sessions on Facebook Live. I believe I burn as much calories from laughing at their crazy dancing as they do dancing!
Walk, Ride, or Slide
About twice a week we all get our tennis shoes on and go for a walk with the dogs around the neighborhood, a bike ride to the park or drive to a new park to explore or hike. Our new favorite activity is riding our bikes to our neighborhood park and playing tennis. Daddy is the only one who is actually any good at playing though! HA!
All of these activities take very little planning on my part. And that is totally OKAY! Spur of the moment or routine, each of these activities are simple ways to keep the kids active year round! If you need ideas or help implementing Triple Play into your family life, check out BGCA’s Website, Twitter or Facebook and help your children learn the answer to “I feel better when…” by implementing simple and easy changes to their lifestyle.
Happy Playing!
Keikilani
What do you do to keep your kids active year round?
These are great ways to stay active. When the weather is good and we want to do a indoor activity, we like to go bowling.
We live in South Florida so we do alot of outdoor yard and park things in the fall and winter. then spend lots of summer time doing water activities.
These sound like super fun ways to stay active. My kids loved spending lots of time in our yard too!
I love to bike ride with my son or walk. He is very good about staying in shape these days.
Thankfully my boys love being outside, and being active. I don’t have to much! They also love to play sports and hike.
You are speaking my language! Dance parties are the best!
Even though the weather is cold right now, we still love going out on adventures and being active! It’s almost better since we aren’t dying in the heat!
We have always been a very active family. I think it is so important to get outside with your kids and get active. We like to go for hikes to look for treasures.
Just getting outside is always a good idea. Today’s world is so filled with technology that it’s easy for kids to just sit in the house all day. We like to get our kids into soccer or go out fishing is fun too.