It’s yet another responsibility a parent has~ making sure his/her children get exercise. It ![DSCN1563[1]](https://spiceoflifeblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/dscn15631.jpg "Geopalz Pedometer next to mouse for size")
isn’t always easy in the winter when even I take one look outside and dive for the nearest blanket. During the summer months it is completely normal for my two sons to play all day, to go from a park to a pool to another park and September always leaves me cringing at the thought of those two active boys suddenly having to sit for 6.5 hours a day with just short little recesses to get outside. Then as slowly as the leaves turn colors the sedentary lifestyle seeps into their growing bones and it becomes the norm, making movement a strange and rare occurrence that results in having to ‘rest’. I hate it. And just for the record I also hate the hours of homework after school when kids should be running around, or pursuing other passions like music, art, karate, etc. Anyway, I found a tool that helps motivate the kids to move and I like it so much I just have to share. There might be other brands out there, but what I found at our local REI was a kid friendly pedometer made by geopalz. The pedometers come in all different kinds of cute designs and can be worn on shoes or hips or even held in hand, though that is not really recommended. (Your arm movements are much more erratic compared to legs/feet.) The kids get to login into their personal statistics on the geopalz website and enter in their daily steps to watch their numbers add up and earn points for the ‘arcade’ and also points to earn real things, such as frisbees or balls. Such a fantastic idea! Both the website and the pedometer seem to be fairly new and have a kink or two that still need working out, but the fact my youngest and most lay-around-the-house son said, “I’m going to wear this all the time and get more steps!” is enough to make the purchase worth it. They have really enjoyed them so far and I have enjoyed being able to say, “Let’s walk to (wherever) and you can rack up some steps” and hearing “Yay!” instead of “No way!” Great idea and seems to be a great company.
Category: kids
Activity Time
The weather here has been less than bliss-inducing, to say the least, which really effects the mood of the whole family. Usually there are two or three days I can pick up my two boys from school so they can run around and play with friends on the school property before heading home (as opposed to just riding the bus straight home.) It was rainy and icky all week so they missed out on that play time, and by the weekend it really showed. I’ve noticed this before~ if they have that free play time, they are far more centered, even on the following days, so the centered-ness stays really lasts a long time. Both my boys just seemed all wound up yesterday morning, and even though we made it to the park for a bit before bedtime, it was brief, and today my older more sensitive son woke up again all ‘off’. Nothing could change his mood indoors, so I knew what I had to do~ take him down to the park in the cold, windy, morning air for a walk, or run, or whatever got him happier. It took some convincing but he is old enough now to realize that those ‘mood changer’ park outings really work. It took about 20 minutes before I started hearing his voice move from whiny to joyful, which happened while in the damp, cold sandbox. (I had to keep circling the sandbox just to stay warm while he made a castle and then a Roman town.) He was “too exhausted” to do much physical~ he had worn himself out by getting frustrated with a painting he messed up earlier. After about 20 minutes in the sandbox though, he wanted to run around the track~ where he got hit in the arm by a careless soccer ball. This would have caused a total meltdown less than an hour before, but he just smiled and waved and said, “good thing it didn’t hit my head.” Oh yes. And it’s a very good thing we live by a park. Very good indeed.
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