Keeping the kids active during the Summer Holidays

Trying to keep children fit outside of school, along with their PE classes and team sports, can be hard enough but during school holidays particularly this challenge becomes even tougher.

It can be hard to think of fun and engaging forms of exercise and activities for them to partake in.

We’ve outlined some of the best ways to keep your children active during the Summer holidays.

Create an activity schedule

This is something that may seem simple and obvious but it’s something we often forget. By creating an activity schedule, you can plan for the week ahead the activities you want the kids to do, on what days and at which times. This is helpful as you’re much more likely to do something you have planned in advance and you can also vary what you do throughout the week.

Tip: Have the kids help you to plan so they can choose their favourite activities.

Vary it Up

When you plan your activities ensure that you add a variety of exercises rather than doing the same activity every single day. Doing the same activity, no matter how fun it was the first time, can become boring and may eventually feel like a chore.

It’s vital that the kids enjoy doing the activities set so they’re excited to do them. They will also pick up a larger collection of skills from various activities rather than just one.

Involve friends and family

Children often enjoy sports and fitness much more when they’re doing it with a group of other people, especially friends. At school, they’ll be used to doing PE with all of their classmates and any sports clubs with their teammates. During Summer, at least once a week try to arrange for them to meet up with a couple or so friends and do it together. Even if they’re friends are away it can be just as fun with family.

Gym or Swimming

This is totally dependent on the age of your children and what kind of activity they enjoy but this can be super helpful to motivate and encourage them. You can get a pass to your local swimming pool for children, swimming is a great form of exercise and also lots of fun.

For slightly older children and teenagers you could purchase a gym membership for the Summer where they can do various different forms of exercise or even take part in gym classes.

Keep active yourself

This final tip may seem a bit strange and you might wonder how this helps your children to keep active. But with them looking up to you as a role model, by seeing you maintaining your fitness level and continuing activities during the holidays, it will encourage them to do the same. You can also encourage them by talking about the benefits of keeping yourself active.

This step can encourage you to do activities together, this way you all are getting something out of it, and it can actually create some great family time.