CLEVELAND — It’s hard to find ways to keep our kids active, during these cold winter months. In today’s Mom Squad, Exercise physiologist Amy Raineri with Akron Children's Healthy Active Living Clinic, shared some ideas on how to get kids off the couch ... and having fun!
“We also have a game that I’ve done often with kids. It’s called the name challenge. And it’s based on the alphabet and each letter of the alphabet has different moves. And they pull the letters out of their name and that creates their little interval workout,” says Raineri.
Another trend is for local gyms to offer workouts and classes geared toward tweens and teens. We asked Raineri if it was safe.
“The old myth was that if younger kids worked out really hard or worked out with weights, that would stunt their growth, but that’s not the case,” says Raineri. “A lot of the times, as long as they’re doing it properly, proper technique is really important and as long as they have that in place, then they’re ok to do that.”
Here are more tips for parents from Raineri:
These activities can earn your child tokens or screen time (no more than 2 hrs.) to incentivize them to be more active. If you choose to use a token system, create a chart indicating what the tokens can be used for (1 token =15 minutes screen time)
1. Take a bath or shower and get cleaned up for the day, including brushing teeth.
2. Clean up room – everything off the floor and picked up.
3. Make your bed.
4. Vacuum and dust your house/apartment.
5. Clean up the kitchen – meaning wash dishes or load/unload dishwasher.
6. Walk your dog – at least 20 mins
7. Take a walk in your neighborhood – at least 20 mins.
8. Read a book – a real one, not one on your kindle or tablet.
9. Get creative and make something crafty – paint, color, construct, build, etc
10. Play a ‘bored’ game – at least 20 mins
11. Meet a friend at a nearby park and play
12. Ride your bike – at least 20 mins
13. Play a card game
14. Do a load of laundry, fold it, and put it away.
15. Clean your bathroom – countertops, shower, and toilet and change the towels.
16. Mow the grass – at least 20 minutes
17. Run thru the sprinkler in your yard – at least 20 minutes
18. Change the sheets on all of the beds in the house – at least 20 mins
19. Go grocery shopping with your parent – and you push the cart and retrieve all the necessary groceries – Give mom a break!
20. Wash the car(s)
21. Vacuum out the car
22. Clean out the garage and sweep the floor
23. Rake leaves/pick up sticks
24. Help your parents prepare dinner by setting the table.
25. Help prepare the food for the next meal by washing or chopping the veggies or salad.
26. Build a fort outdoors with tree branches and leaves
27. Create a neighborhood scavenger hunt.
28. Play a pick-up game of catch with a friend – at least 20 mins
29. Make up a story and write it down – with pen and paper – no electronics!
30. Go to the library and find a book on a subject that you don’t know anything about and read up on it.
She also shared some of the screen free ways you can keep your kids active.
You can watch the entire episode of mom squad on our WKYC app, our Mom Squad YouTube page, or in the media player below.
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