Friday, May 30, 2008

Fun Ways to Exercise as a Family

So DH and I could use some more exercise. And after a scary series in the Washington Post about childhood obesity (although my kids have no weight issues yet), I have decided we need some family exercise. I think we start with a half hour walk. I proposed this to the girls earlier in the week and got lukewarm response. So I decided I would make it a game. I made a bunch of Bingo cards to use on our walks (see pic). Each of the squares has a picture of something we might see on the way - a bird, a fire hydrant, a porch, a swing, a squirrel - stuff like that. So last night we tried it for the first time. Oh my gosh, they LOVED it. It was more like a scavenger hunt to them. The only part that was bad was that they were screaming whenever they found one of the things. They were so excited, but they were scaring people. Seriously, a guy jogs by with a dog - and they are both like "DOG DOG DOG!!!!" at about 50 decibels. And the guy nearly hit a telephone pole. They want to go again tonight, so if we can tone it down a bit, I think it will work out great!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh! That sounds like such a good idea! That is definitely funny about the girls yelling so loud and the guy with the dog. I laughed out loud when I read that, my two year old looked at me like I was crazy. Ha ha.

We do a lot of things too, in order to make sure our kids get exercise and that we do. We've started a garden recently. So that keeps us active. We go for walks at least once or twice a day, and we'll play in the park across the street from us.

But that definitely sounds like a good idea. I'm so glad that they loved it :)

Unknown said...

that really is a fabulous idea!! What a great way to get your kids moving and exercising and having fun!!

Excellent tip!

Yellow Beads said...

what a creative idea!

Julie said...

That is super creative of you - glad the kids responded so well also!

Laura said...

What a great idea - and it would keep the walk at a good pace - racing to see the next thing. COOL!

Thanks for sharing.

zakkalife said...

what a great idea, I've seen these for traveling in the car but never thought of using them for walking.

Courtney said...

Cute :) I made up cards like this too, but ours were not for walking. Last year I made one just for the boys to find out in our yard. This year I did one for the car ride to our weekend trip a few weeks ago. They got bored in the car though- they wanted to be able to find everything within 5 minutes, and when they couldn't, they got bored with it. lol