How often a child plays video games, talks on the phone, watches television and spends time on the computer that isn’t school related translates into how often they are not getting a healthy dose of physical activity in their daily schedule.  These multimedia pieces of equipment often times take the place of a parent.  They act as the babysitter for a few hours until it is time to eat and then time to go to bed.  Instead these should be used as a reward after a child performs an hour of physical activity.  It is important to set guidelines for a child to be able to use a multimedia activity for one hour (or to your discretion) AFTER a minimum of one hour of some form of physical activity has been performed.

During summer vacation, the days are long and the sun shines brightly (on most days that is) and you will most likely not hear, “Did you finish your homework?”  Utilize that time to engage in physical activity.  There are a wide variety of things that you can do to get a good exercise and have fun at the same time.

Prioritize your day:

·        Dedicate at least one hour a day to play an outdoor game that is active.

·        Help out around the household by doing daily chores.

·        If you have an outdoor pet, take it for a walk or run.

·        Drink plenty of water throughout the day.

·        Eat an abundant amount of fruits and vegetables each day.

·        Schedule computer time when the weather is not so nice and/or later in the evening.

What can parents do to get their kids moving more throughout the summer?

      ·       Get a child involved in an age-appropriate summer camp activity that 

               involves physical exertion. 

·      Expose a child to many different forms of aerobic exercise and allow them

     to choose what they would like to play (within your guidelines for what is

     safe and acceptable).

• Encourage activity over exercise.  Keeping it fun and allowing a child to choose what special activity they would like to do is more exciting than “having to exercise”.

• Limit the amount of time that your child spends doing a sedentary activity.  School-aged children should not be inactive for periods lasting more than 2 hours; younger children should not have an inactivity period for more than 1 hour.

• Assign your child a chore that involves some physical activity each day.

Here are the current activity recommendations for children, taken from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE):

Age	Minimum Daily Activity	Comments
Infant	No specific requirements	Physical activity should encourage motor development
Toddler	1 1/2 hours	30 minutes planned physical activity AND 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)
Preschooler	2 hours	60 minutes planned physical activity AND 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)
School age	1 hour or more	Break up into bouts of 15 minutes or more