By Mei Yee
It is hard to get kids to want to exercise, older kids anyways, as the younger ones are just balls of pure energy. One thing I have learned about the older kids is that they rarely reject a challenge. So, to get them up and moving, challenge them. Or, if you have two older children, let them challenge each other.
Running; I am not talking about running marathons. Set a goal line, and see who gets there first. For an additional challenge, set two lines, run to the first one and run back to where you started (the second line). Or, if you want to create a whole obstacle course, you can!
Jump rope; if you have two of them, see who can jump longer. If you only have one, take turns and count who can get more jumps in.
Balloons; hear me out. Blow up two (or enough for however many are playing) balloons. See who can keep it in the air the longest. If it hits the ground, then you’re out. This gets them up and moving to keep the balloon in the air.
Stretching; even stretching is an excellent place to start, especially if your kids aren’t up for a challenge. Just do some basic stretches daily. Doing daily stretches will get them used to getting up and doing something.
I say this from my personal experience. Yes, there were grunts and groans from my older child as she only wanted to play on her Switch all day. But one thing that got her interested in doing them was a yoga ball. I threw in a Yoga ball for the stretches, and she loves stretching now and has started to take more interest in yoga.
