Promote active living in your child

Basic safeties

• If they cannot jump up onto it, they should avoid jumping off of it.

• If you can't stop them from jumping off -- ensure a soft, padded landing.

• Avoid too many foot plants each day -- skipping rope and hopscotch should be interspersed with balance games, tag, etc.

• Encourage multi-sports -- specificity at an early age will hinder their athletic abilities.

There are many publications that I will reference throughout this series of family fitness articles. These books are all scrutinized by a very credible company called Human Kinetics publishers. There are strict criteria to be met in their publishing guidelines, which ensure you are getting a solid foundation of enjoyable skills to share with your family or classroom.

In the book Mix, Match and Motivate by Jeff Carmen, the author encourages parents to identify motivators for children. Sometimes, it's letting them take the lead and having choices, other times it's haveing them follow a game plan.

Let's get you going with a mix and match station game. Depending on whether you're outside or inside, choose different areas to perform various activities. I will give you a list of different activities to choose. You can also open this up to imagination and let each child have a turn choosing an activity. Depending on the child's age, the station can last from 1 to 5 minutes.

1. Jumping jacks
2. Crab kicks
3. Jog in place
4. Mountain climbers
5. Crunches
6. Curl ups
7. Push ups
8. Animal walks
9. Ski jump (feet together jump side to side)