12 Apr, 2010
Know More Do More Mondays: swimming, partying, and gifts to promote active living
Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Know More Do More
It is a weird coincidence that Emma drew this activity last week:
“For your next birthday celebration try including relay races, bowling or skating in your party.”
And the tip with with it was matched was:
“87% of children and youth are still not meeting the recommended 90 minutes of physical activity a day.”
Sarah’s birthday party was this past weekend, which we happened to have booked at our local swimming pool. We walked to the pool, swam and goofed around the water for an hour, and walked home after having stopped at the park for a few turns on the slide. (You can read more about the party here.) It was a hoot.
I have two observations to make about this.
1) Kids who’ve been active are better behaved. Not just at parties, but overall. If your little one is whiny and/or arguing with their siblings, run them outside. (Same goes for puppies.)
2) It’s good to let kids invent their own fun. Too often we as parents are tempted to create fun for our kids. This is especially true at parties, when we often feel that every second must be filled with a planned activity. For me this is an incredibly stressful way to host a party. When I started letting go of the idea, I was (and remain!) amazed at how easily kids are able to invent their own fun, that is, if we let them.
At this particular party I organized a couple of activities, and Mark played “shark” with them, but otherwise the girls amused themselves quite nicely.
This is almost a whole other post, but this is why I think unstructured play is so important. It is good for the body, the mind, for developing social skills… unstructured play has countless benefits.
Anyway, I’m getting off track. :) 
Our “big” gift to Sarah was a pair of inline skates, along with new knee, elbow, and wrist pads. Mark and I both want to encourage active outdoor play, and there’s no better way to do it than to give them something they love to do – OUTSIDE.
She loves her new skates. In fact, she is so keen to get better at it that she skated to school this morning. AND she’s inspired me to dig my roller skates out of the basement too. :)
We’ll be drawing for a new KMDM activity tonight, which I’ll summarize next Monday.
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This post is part of the Know More Do More initiative spearheaded by the Champlain Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Network. KMDM is about empowering parents and inspiring them to take charge of their children’s health by taking easy steps to increase activity levels and improve eating habits. I’m one of two champion families who has been asked to take this challenge. You can join too. Check out the official website for more information. You can also get healthy tips by following @knowmoredomore on Twitter. If you’re blogging about your participation, please let me know so we can cheer each other on!
