Getting your kids to exercise and enjoy the outdoors is difficult due to technological advances, including computers, game systems and movies, that make it more enjoyable for them to stay inside. It is vital, however, for your children to exercise daily to prevent undesirable conditions such as hypertension and obesity, according to Kids Health, a health website for kids and parents. Encourage your kids to play outside by playing engaging games with them. This will give them some or all of the exercise they need and likely strengthen your relationship at the same time.
Cross Step
Cross step, a game featured on the Disney Family website, is an enjoyable outdoor game that helps your kids increase their flexibility. Draw a 10-by-10-foot square on concrete with chalk. Fill in the big square with 100 1-by-1-foot squares. Give each player a piece of chalk and have them pick a square to stand in to start the game. Each player steps into a new square, one at a time and without jumping, and crosses out the square they stepped from without leaving the new square. They may not, however, step into a square already crossed out or a square occupied by another player. When they are not able to step into a new square, they are out. The last player remaining wins the game.
Disc Golf
Disc golf, or Frisbee golf, is a fun and inexpensive game you and your kids can play in your yard or at a park. It requires a lot of walking and teaches them to aim and throw a disc at a target. Set up nine holes of varied lengths, with blue cones indicating the tee areas and red cones as targets. One at a time, each player throws the disc from the blue cone toward the target cone at each hole. They then walk to where their discs landed and try again, with the goal of hitting the target cone in as few throws as possible. Each player keeps track of how many total throws he makes over nine holes. Like regular golf, the lowest score wins. Many cities have disc golf courses already set up at local parks for the public to use free. Take advantage of this if there is a course nearby where you live.
Wiffle Ball
Wiffle ball is a baseball-like game played with a plastic ball and bat. Use one cone to designate the hitting area and another for the pitching area, about 10 yards apart. From home plate, walk diagonally to the left side of the pitching area and place a cone at 20 yards, 25 yards and 30 yards. Do the same while walking diagonally to the right side of the pitching area. To play the game, the pitcher throws the ball and the batter tries to hit it inside the diagonal lines indicated by the cones; consider any ball hit outside the lines foul. The batter is awarded a single if the ball lands short of the cones placed at 20 yards from the hitting area; a double if it lands in the area between the cones placed at 20 yards and 25 yards; a triple if it lands in the area between the cones placed at 25 yards and 30 yards; and a home run if it lands beyond the cones placed at 30 yards. Base runners are imaginary and get to move up the same number of bases as the batter. If the batter swings three times without hitting the ball into fair territory, or if the ball is caught by a defensive player, she is out. The teams switch sides after three outs. The winning team will have scored the most runs at the end of the game.
Member Comments