Keep your kids active this summer

Mark Tremblay
• Activity credentials:
Chairs Active Healthy Kids Canada, a national charity that advocates for increasing kids' physical activity

• Kid experience:
Has four kids, aged eight to 16

• Strategies:
Mark gets his kids outside by his own example. He likes to do yard work at his home in Ottawa and is often in the backyard cutting grass or gardening. Ben, his 12-year-old son, usually trails out behind him with the dog. When Mark lets Ben put on a pair of heavy gardening gloves, that's the signal to the dog that roughhousing can begin. Usually the energetic commotion also draws his eight-year-old outside or attracts another child who lives in the neighbourhood.

Mark also entices his kids with fun activities and challenges. He might set up an obstacle course in the backyard or suggest a mini-Olympics. The challenges don't matter -- it could be climbing a fence or picking a leaf off a tree -- as long as the kids are moving. “Tell them you're timing them and have an awards ceremony at the end,” he says.

Only occasionally does he have to play the heavy, turning off the TV and saying, “Everyone, out!”
It's tougher to get teenagers moving, but he's got strategies for that, too. When his 14-year-old daughter wants to go to the mall or the movies a couple of kilometres away, that's fine with him -- as long as she walks.

And Mark and his neighbours recently made a small investment in a freestanding basketball net, which they had installed in a local park. It's a big attraction for older kids and gets their competitive juices flowing.

• Bonus tip:
Get a dog. It forces kids and parents outside for regular walks.

Jane Potter
• Activity credentials:
An assistant director of Camp Mi-A-Kon-Da, a girls' camp near Parry Sound, Ont.

• Kid experience:
Plans summer camp activities for 100 girls aged seven to 16

• Strategies:
The trick is to give kids a choice of activities, says Jane. Some kids love running games, such as Capture the Flag, while others prefer to go for a walk and look for frogs. Let like-minded kids play together. “Keep activities social so that kids forget they're being active,” she says. Run, don't walk, to the park after supper.

• Bonus tip:
Kids love badges. Give out activity stickers generously.

Page 2 of 4