The summer holidays are a great time to encourage our children to get up and get active.
There are so many benefits to spending more time outside as a family, and it’s so important to keep our children active rather than spending all summer sat in front of a computer. But it can be hard to think of enough different things to do to fill the whole six week break from school.
If you’re in need of a bit of inspiration, here are some ideas for fun things you can do to keep your children active this summer.
Get some wheels
Learning to ride a bike is a bit of a rite of passage and the summer holidays are a great time to help your child master it. And riding a bike is a great way to get them active once they’re feeling confident.
Younger children can have just as much fun on a balance bike, which also helps them gain the basic skills they’ll need to ride a proper bike later.
If bikes aren’t your children’s thing then roller skates or scooters might grab their interest a bit more. And for older children you could branch out to roller blades, stunt scooters or skateboards.
Try out parkour
Parkour, or free running, is a great way to get children active and build their confidence in what their bodies can do.
It’s basically about moving quickly around an area and getting around obstacles by running, jumping or climbing up and over them. The best way to start is to look for a local class where your children can learn how to do parkour as safely at possible.
Find a fitness trail
These are basically pieces of exercise equipment set up along a trail, so you can have a good walk or run and stop off along the way to try out some different exercises.
It’s a great way to keep children interested who might otherwise get a bit bored of just going for a walk, as well as being a fun way to use their bodies in all sorts of different ways.
Go swimming
Swimming is a great full body workout and something that most children tend to really enjoy.
Take a look at your local pool and see what sessions they have on that might be suitable for your family.
Or if you’re lucky enough to live by the coast then head to the beach on a warm day and brave swimming in the sea. You could even go on a cooler day and just splash around in the shallow water, jumping in the waves as they come in will still burn off a fair bit of energy!
Visit the park
Another childhood classic, but for a good reason. Parks are a great place to go to get children active, no matter how old they are. Younger children love playing on see-saws and slides in the play park, while older children can take along a football or cricket set and have a little game.
Another option that’s great fun when the park is a bit quieter is to get your children to use the play park as an obstacle course and challenge them to get round it as quickly as possible. Nerys and I do this sometimes on our way home from school and she loves it. They can climb up the climbing frame and down the fireman’s pole, run around the see saw and weave in and out between the swings.
Let them try out a new sport
You can go the DIY route with this one, by teaching your child some beginner sports skills yourself. It might be tennis, cricket, football or rounders, depending on what bats and balls you can get your hands on.
The great thing with these kinds of sports is that even if you can’t get together enough people for a proper game you can have fun working on the basic skills needed to play.
So get a pop up goal and get your child to practice kicking a football on target. Or find a nice open space to teach them to bowl and bat for cricket.
If you’re not much of a sporty person yourself then look out for classes and one-off sessions that might be running in your local area to give your children a taste of different sports. They might just discover something they love and want to continue in the new school year.
So there you have it, plenty of ideas for fun ways to keep the children active this summer. Are there any other activities that your children particularly enjoy getting involved in?
Disclaimer: this is a collaborative post