You can find me every March skipping along merrily, filled with happiness and bliss thanks to the perfect (and I mean perfect) weather the Valley has to offer during the Spring months. “This is the best place on earth to live!” I can be heard shouting.
But, you better believe that come May, and especially June, you can hear me telling my husband, once again, that it’s time to move. To where? Anywhere! Anywhere but here!
I dread the long, hot, potentially boring summer months we have here in the Valley. I hate watching my kids turn into iPad and T.V. addicted zombies. What I want is for my family to stay just as active in the summer as any other time. A big goal? Kinda.
But here’s a few ideas on how I like to keep myself and my kids moving, despite the heat:
- Indoor scavenger hunt. Hide little pieces of paper around the house, making clues for each one. Let your kids go find them. The catch? Each item they find represents an exercise they have to complete: jumping jacks, pushups, hula hooping, lifting small child-sized weights.
- River Stones. These are brightly colored, sturdy plastic “stones” you place out across the floor (tile or wood is best). Your kiddos then step, leap, and stretch from stone to stone. They help improve coordination and balance and are also great for toddlers and up.
- Golf Pool. What’s that you ask? Well, I stumbled upon it the other day on one of my favorite sites for kid toys and games, Hearth Song. It combines the games of golf and pool with an easy to setup on an indoor mat.
- Indoor trampoline. Believe it or not, these can be really great for kids and moms. Fun, easy indoor exercise.
- Yoga Cards. There are a variety of these cards online, but I happen to be partial to the Yoga Pretzel cards, which feature a variety of poems and additional thinking activities for kids. There’s even some science and nature study mixed in.
- Fitness Carnival. My kids love tickets! You know the kind that arcade games spit out after stealing all your money? So I went ahead and bought a big reel of them from the office supply store and then setup a Fitness Carnival. Each area of our house had stations, which my kids helped create. One was pushups, one was arm wrestling, another was balancing books on your head. For each station completed the kids would win tickets. Those tickets could then be used to buy a healthy treat from mom.
- Dance Party. Nothing creates quite as much jumping, screaming, and delight at our house as when we turn on some jams and dance around in our pajamas. Easy and fun (plus, doing this before bedtime doesn’t hurt either).
- All that other cool indoor stuff. I don’t know about you, but I always have intentions of taking up an indoor sporting hobby with my family, but never get around to joining. This summer though, we have decided to start rock climbing to take advantage of all the amazing rock gyms in Arizona. But, there’s also summer bowling leagues, indoor trampoline parks, and sports camps at local gyms.
Here’s to a happy, healthy summer that gets us sweating, but for the right reasons.
