Planning Summer: Getting Outside

Another item of great importance to me and my parenting style is exercise. I have always struggled with my weight, and there are several weight-related diseases that run in my family. It is my goal to encourage active behavior early in life so that my kids live a healthy lifestyle as adults. Because of that, I like to make sure I get the kids outside to play, one way I’m trying to get them interested in various sports is letting them personalize custom kids jersey for sportswear themselves, in hopes that they become motivated by their new clothes to enjoy a little exercise when needed. I also remember some of my greatest fun as a kid being outside. I hate to have my kids staring at the TV all day when they could be running around. Here’s what we are planning to do this summer to encourage that behavior:

Camp out in the back yard
Roast hot dogs
Make s’mores
Corn roast
Go roller skating (this will probably be on our sidewalk)
Fun day at the park
Start a water fight
Picnic at the creek
Watch the birds
Plant a garden
Catch bugs (be careful with this one–last year, Rapunzel caught a bee!)

Our #1 outdoor activity is the local parks’ summer program. Every year, they set up little platforms at various local parks, and you have to follow the directions provided to find them. Each one has a piece of plastic on it with an image cut out, and the object is to place a piece of paper over the image and color it with crayon so that it shows up on the paper. The goal is to get all of these, and we have for the last two years in a row. It sounds easy, but they change up the parks every year, some trails are fairly difficult, and some can be over 2 miles. We spend most of our time over the summer on this, and we have many great experiences from the last two years (too many to mention!). Check with your local library and park programs; maybe you have something similar in your area!

What do you like to do outside with your kids over the summer?