As summer temperatures cool into fall and kids head back to their desks at school it can take a little effort to make sure your kids are staying active. And let’s face it, “Who wants to exercise?” doesn’t sound very appealing to most of the young set. The trick is to make play active. Your kids will be so busy having fun, they won’t realize they’re benefiting physically. Here are a few ideas that will help your kids set down the after-school video games and start moving! 
- Nerf Gun Battle Royale: What kid doesn’t enjoy surveillance, teamwork, and shooting Nerf darts? Set up a station for each team far enough apart to ensure the kids will have to run back and forth in battle. Anyone hit by a dart is out. In this version, the winning team turns their darts on each other. The last person standing is the Battle Royale winner. Your kids will run miles trying to beat the darts, and they won’t even know it.
- Trampoline Fun: Sometimes we don’t think about jumping as a form of exercise, but according to the Center for Disease Control, when done safely, jumping on a trampoline counts as a moderate level of exercise intensity, putting it on par with light yoga and gymnastics. Many cities have indoor trampoline gyms, so jumping can be done in any weather, and 9 out of 10 kids won’t say no to that outing.
- Ultimate Tag: If you went back into history, the game of tag would probably be the oldest one. It’s a classic game that encourages running away from the player who’s “It.” In Ultimate tag every player is “It.” Anyone who is tagged has to sit down. When the player who tagged them is tagged, they get back into the game. It’s fast paced, so there is more running and less sitting than most games of tag. Sound exhausting just reading about it? It is. And that’s a good thing.
- Ropes Course: Some kids are mini adrenaline junkies. They enjoy the thrill of heights, laugh in the face of zip lines, and dream of narrow balance beams. For those types of kids, or even to encourage the others, ropes courses are a great way to actively enjoy physical challenges. There are indoor and outdoor ropes courses that allow kids to move and climb, or you can set up your own mini course at home. Make a bridge out of chairs, jump off a pile of pillows, ride your bike around the driveway, and then crawl across the room with the dog – let your creativity guide you and your kids will follow.
- Fun 5Ks: Ask a kid if they want to run 3 miles and you may get a blank stare in return. Ask a kid if they want to get covered in color with their friends, and you might be voted Parent of the Year. At Color Me Rad kids are having so much fun tie-dying their t-shirt in the color stations, that they won’t notice the distance. And when they realize they completed a 5K, they’ll have bragging rights at school. Win-win.
Tell us what you do to keep your kids active below, and sign up to run together at colormerad.com.
Incredible tips in this article! I have four-year-old daughter and she loves to dance so I let her go on this hip hop thing at her kinder garden and I think that she is very happy. Hope that dances will be longer in her life and she will be able to move even during the cold seasons!