Family Health & Fitness Day is celebrated on June 12th to promote the importance of parks and recreation in keeping communities healthy. From walking, hiking, biking and even getting out on the water, all of these activities can help families get in physical activity and feel healthy doing it.
By turning off the television and going out to play, enrolling in sports and camps, or gathering everyone for a bike ride, parents can show their children the value of health and wellness.
Before you decide on how you and your family will celebrate this day, consider a few different factors.
- Let each member of the family pick an activity —no matter how zany it may be. Movement is movement!
- Don’t discourage your kids in any way with their picks unless they are truly dangerous.
- If one activity doesn’t work (resonate with the family) simply choose another one.
10 Family Games to Play
With these guidelines in mind, make up your own unique games and activities. But if you’re in search of an imaginative spark, Try these,
Squirt gun wars:
If you think water guns are just for traditional water gun fights, think again. There are tons of different kinds of water gun games to try. Whether you’re a long-time pro, a newbie, or a parent looking for a way to keep the kids occupied, I think you’ll enjoy this list of 18 water gun games at https://codepineapple.com
The old favorites — “kick the can,” “capture the flag,” etc.
You’ll be amazed at how much your kids love these “novel” games.
Kickball:
It’s a perfect family workout. Easy to learn, it doesn’t require a lot of strength or skill, so even preschoolers can play. If you’re playing in your backyard or local park , you can easily adjust rules to help little ones succeed.
Flag, or touch football
let your kids pick the players. Here instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team has to remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier (“deflagging”) to end a down, contact is not permitted between players.
Sardines:
This is game is kind of a reverse “hide and go seek”. Turn out all the lights. Have one elder go hide. Everyone else is “it” and looks for this person. As soon as one person finds the person hiding, he or she hides with the person. Now there are two hiding. As soon as someone else finds them, that person hides with them. You end up with a bunch of people packed like “sardines” in one hiding spot with one poor person trying to find everyone.
A hiking treasure hunt (pick odd shaped rocks, roots, beautiful flowers, etc.)
A nature scavenger hunt gets kids outside to learn, have fun, and observe the nature world. Check out https://artfulparent.com/
Frisbee football
Fun, energetic & active sport. You can enjoy the basic fun of team sports with a flying disk while modifying the rules to fit your circumstances. Once you have the basics in place, you can add new rules or tailor your game to fit the playing area or number of players.
Badminton
A great way to celebrate fitness day & spend more time with your loved ones. The benefit of badminton as a game is that it improves blood circulation to a greater extent, which in turn means that it strengthens the heart muscles to pump blood more profusely.
Your Number Is Up
Instruct your family members to walk randomly around the room. About every ten seconds or so, call out a number. Everyone in the game must immediately form a group hug, made up of the number of people that you called. This sometimes leaves some of them unable to form a group because they don’t have enough people — they are out of the game. Repeat until you only have two people left and declare them the winners Keep score.
Zip Zap Bop
Played like Newspaper Name Nail with a few changes. Everyone is to learn the names of the persons to their left and right. Zip means left and Zap means right. The person in the middle says a persons name and either Zip or Zap. The person called must say the name of the person to their right or left, depending on what the person in the middle said, Zip or Zap. The person in the middle tries to bop them on the head with the newspaper before they can say it. This is a pretty stupid game- but some kids actually like it- try it and if it doesn’t work right away have a back up.
Have a fun-filled fitness day & a year ahead.