“Mom, I’m sooo bored! What can I do today?”

If you fear these words coming out of your child’s mouth this spring, you must read on to find creative ways to cure your kids of the inevitable cases of boredom!

A new study in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine reveals that almost 1 in 5 preschool-aged children are obese. That comes to a total of 4 million obese children!

We all know that physical activity is an excellent way to prevent childhood obesity. Kids are designed by nature to move and play and dance and giggle. With a few simple suggestions, you can help your kids burn off their energy and prevent childhood (and adult) obesity in the easiest ways!

• Be a good role model for your children. Encourage your children to view physical activity as a natural and enjoyable part of your day, not a forced or dreaded habit. Remember the many benefits of exercise for your entire family: increases self-esteem, helps to control weight, builds healthy bones, reduces stress levels and teaches team-building skills.


• Encourage physical activity with the entire family by taking group walks, playing games with your children or participating in weekend events in the backyard or parks.


• If your child participates in organized sports, be sure to reward his effort and enthusiasm, not just her demonstrated talent on the playing field.


• Consider limiting the time your children watch television or play video games to no more than an hour per day. Instead, encourage your children to find indoor fun activities which simply involve more moving and less sitting (hide-and-seek, dancing).


• Stuck inside on a chilly weekend? Consider buying a disco ball and throwing a Friday night dance party for your kids and their friends! Grab a hula hoop or jump rope for more indoor fun with music. Amazon has great deals on jump ropes and hula hoops! Add a little gymnastics into the mix, and try out forward somersaults or handstands against the wall. Or buy an indoor basketball hoop or mini trampoline.


• When buying toys and presents for your children, choose toys that would encourage moving such as bikes, balls and outdoor equipment. Try to minimize the number of toys which encourage them to play inside or sit in front of the TV or computer. Check out this cool website for more creative ideas, http://www.mindandfitness.com/servlet/StoreFront. Offer positive reinforcement for any activity in which your children participates and encourage them as they express interest in new activities.


• Make a weekly goal for getting your family to the swimming pool this spring by finding a family-friendly indoor swimming pool or water park. Most kids are extremely active at the swimming pool without any needed encouragement from mom or dad, and this can be a wonderful form of exercise for their growing bodies. If you child is ready, consider swim lessons to increase their confidence level and enjoyment of the pool.


• Still feel like life is too hectic and busy for structured activities in your family? Incorporate small lifestyle changes into your day. Park your car in the farthest spot from the grocery store or shopping mall entrance. Take the stairs when possible. Encourage your children to run/race to the next store when this is safe.


• Encourage your children to take the dog for a walk 1x/day. Even if the walk is short, you will be teaching them a sense of responsibility and the importance of exercise for everyone, including the pup!


• Consider doing a family one-mile run this summer. Check out www.active.com for races across the country.

Need more guidance? Try printing out this activity pyramid and sticking on your fridge at home, or print the blank pyramid and fill in for your family’s choices. It will serve as a daily reminder for your family to go outside and get moving and grooving!

As a busy parent, you are probably great at multitasking. You have to be, right? Often, doing several things at once is a survival skill. But you also know how easy it is to get overwhelmed and how difficult it can be to complete anything. Sometimes the list just seems so long…

When you find yourself overwhelmed and short on time, try the following exercise:

1. Choose something that would feel really great to make headway on or that deserves your attention for more than just a few moments. You don’t have to complete the whole project, just give it some undivided attention.


2. Set a timer for 20 minutes and commit to doing that one thing with focus and intention for the entire time.


3. Stay present with your task and don’t let your attention waver or your mind create any judgment. Being hard on yourself is not going to help you right now!

Setting aside 20-minute blocks of time to focus intently on one task, one project or one activity can surprise you. And you might find that in one day, you can create several 20-minute blocks of time and they do add up!

Here are some ideas of what you can do with 20 minutes of focused attention:

Organize

• Find a small area of your house that is bugging you. Maybe it needs a deep clean, a serious de-clutter or a little bit of sprucing up!


• Do a whole house sweep. Grab a bag or box and rush through the house, grabbing all the clutter. Then take your box and put everything away. If you haven't used something for awhile, set is aside for donation.


• Sort and recycle stacked up mail, a pile of papers or your files.


• Clean out your email box or computer desktop. That feels really good!

Self-Care

• Crank up some tunes and dance for 20 minutes. This can be a real workout!


• Do a quick power walk around the block.


• Grab a book, pick a quiet corner and request 20 minutes of peace and relaxation from your family.


• Meditate, pray or stretch.

Vision

• Have a 20-minute brainstorming session about something that has been on your mind. Don’t let your pen leave the paper and jot down every thought you have, even if it doesn’t seem relevant.


• Dig out that dusty journal and spend a few precious moments dreaming about a creative idea you have been brewing, write a story or record a memory.

Relate

• Spend 20 minutes with your kids following their lead. Color, play with clay or read a story of their choosing. Commit to staying attentive and focusing all your attention on them. If your mind begins to create a grocery list or focus on a problem, remind yourself that you can do that later!


• Invite your partner to share a 20-minute active listening session. Split the time equally and you each talk about something important to you for the entire time with the other person listening (no comments, questions, or trying to "fix it"). Look into your partner’s eyes when they are talking and thank them for sharing. If you want to, you can also repeat back what you heard them say and offer some empathy or understanding for their feelings.

This won't take the place of longer sessions but it will give you a jumpstart. You will feel more proactive and productive and it can get your creative juices flowing! You might think 20 minutes is not long enough to do anything very well. The trick is to be very focused and mindful.

I recently took my 1- and 3-year-old sons to Baby Loves Disco, a "traveling party" that sets up shop in nightclubs during the day for a kid friendly dance party. It was fantastic. I am all for anything to get my kids moving, especially in the colder months when we are desperate for spaces for them to run around. The best part is that you get moving too! Without realizing it you are both getting much needed exercise all while dancing to '70s and '80s music spun by the club's DJ. My husband and I had a blast "reliving" our clubbing days - even if it was post nap/pre-dinnertime!

The dance floor is occasionally showered with bubbles which I think is fun for both kids and adults alike, and the kids have all sorts of props to encourage creative movement. There are hula hoops, egg shakers and scarves. In our venue, there was a little stage that our three-year-old loved dancing on. Our one-year old just loved running back and forth in the open space. And myself? I actually broke into a sweat spinning my three-year-old around for a few songs on the main floor.

If the music is too much, or you need a break, there are many ways to get one. Baby Loves Disco sets up quiet rooms with toys and books, a room for nursing, feeding and changing babies, balloon artists creating all sorts of surprises for the little ones, massage chairs for mommies and daddies, face painting, healthy snacks for kids and parents (guacamole, hummus, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip etc). Oh, and did I mention that the bar is open for business?

To find out if there is a Baby Loves Disco party near you - and you should check, because they go to more cities than you'd think, go to Baby Loves Disco. It can be a bit overwhelming, but is well worth it for a family activity that gets everyone moving!