“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!

Are you raising boys? Have you noticed how different boys and girls are in terms of their behaviors and self-expression? As the mama of two boys, one age two, the other much older at 16, I often feel like I don’t quite understand what my sons need.

I turned to Parent Coach and Waldorf Educator Janet Allison to answer some questions about raising boys. Janet teaches a popular workshop “Boys Alive!” and has an e-book “Boys Alive: Bring Out Their Best!”

The Tranquil Parent: I often feel like I don’t know how to speak my sons' language. What do I need to know about boys that will help me communicate with them better?

Janet Allison: Less is more! Knowing how male and female brains developed differently through time gives parents a new perspective on why "boys will be boys.”

Females developed in groups, working together and nurturing children together. They depended on their relationships to survive. Their ability to process verbally was a key part of this and so female brains developed with many areas for processing verbal input. The male, who was hunting, required less verbal input, relying more on visual/spatial input. Scientists have found that the male brain has 25% less connecting nerve fibers between the right and left hemispheres and less places to process verbal input overall.

So moms talk a lot and boys have less places to process that verbal input. This slows their response time - sometimes up to 60 seconds! If we overwhelm them with too many words, they get frustrated and tune us out. And then we get frustrated when they don’t respond immediately!

Boys tend to respond to how something is said, rather than the words that are being said, which makes your tone of voice crucial. Keep your voice firm and neutral. To do this, make sure you are taking a moment to breathe deep and low into your belly before speaking.

TTP: My younger son has so much energy! What can I do to help him use his energy in a positive (rather than destructive) way?

Allison: Here are simple ideas for channeling your son’s energy:

• Look at your home through your son’s eyes. What adaptations can be made? Is there too much clutter? Simplicity eliminates overwhelming choices (and when boys are overwhelmed or uncomfortable, they often translate those feelings into running around and making noise.) One mom decided to pack away her antiques for a few years, rather than constantly yelling and fearing they would be broken.


• Provide ‘open-ended’ toys that inspire imaginative play. A fire truck with bells and whistles can only be that but a wooden block on wheels can be an amphibious land-rover, a pirate ship or a race car. Outdoor areas with water, sand, mud and sticks provide hours of imaginative and adventurous play. A metal bar across a doorway provides countless ways to build muscle and burn off energy. Tie a strong cloth around the bar and it becomes a swing or a book nook. A small trampoline also provides an acceptable physical outlet indoors.


• Adapt your expectations of behavior by simply acknowledging and accepting boy energy. Think of how “boy energy” has contributed to creating spaceships, bridges and skyscrapers. Celebrate and channel it!


• If boys are expected to "sit still" for awhile, make sure they have some physical play time first. Then provide a squishy ball or beeswax, so they have something to play with. Teachers are realizing that addressing this need in school actually helps boys listen better!

TTP: What are some of the most important things that Dads can teach their sons?

Allison: Moms need to understand the role of testosterone in their son’s life. It is important to know that it is responsible for aggression, risk-taking and impulsivity. It is the hormone that helped our ancestors actually kill the beasts they were hunting!

It is even more important, though, that the men in your son’s life teach him how to handle his testosterone. Boys must learn to control their impulses and their fathers can teach this self-control. Roughhousing and wrestling provide opportunities for learning to stop when things have gone too far.

Men are also key in teaching boys to respect women. And this begins with Mom. Hopefully, it is being modeled, but it must also be explicitly taught. “You may not talk to your mother in that tone of voice. How else can you say that?” Remember, your boy will likely grow to be bigger than his mom, and so an attitude of respect and care for her must be taught early.

Praise from dad (or uncle or grandpop) is worth 10 times more than praise from mom. Be specific in your praise - describe what you saw him do, the effect it had on others, how you felt - you are increasing his emotional vocabulary.

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Book recommendations from Janet Allison:

• Sharifa Oppenheimer, Heaven on Earth: A Handbook for Parents of Young Children


• Michael Gurian,The Wonder of Boys


• Kim John Payne, Simplicity Parenting (scheduled for release in summer 2009)

What tips and techniques are you using to work with your boy’s energy? Leave a comment!

Do you live in a place that turns cloudy and gray for weeks on end in the winter? Do you often wear sunscreen or protective clothing and hats in the summer? Have you recently been pregnant or breastfeeding? Do you spend less time in the sun than you used to?

Our bodies produce vitamin D₃ through exposure to the sun, and is a building block for an important steroid hormone in your body called calcitriol. Vitamin D₃ works with other hormones to support healthy bones, cell growth and is a key factor in maintaining hormonal balance and a strong immune system.

I recently had my vitamin D levels tested. Not surprisingly, I was in the deficiency range. I live in the rainy part of the Pacific Northwest and am breastfeeding a toddler. My doctor said that almost everyone she tests in our region of the county is somewhat deficient. When I told my family who live in sunny Texas about vitamin D deficiency, they also got checked. And guess what? They too also tested as deficient! Why? That Texas heat keeps people indoors, close to the A/C. So, even if you live somewhere with year-round sun, you might still need some help getting enough vitamin D - and not doing so can impact everything from your bone health to your sleep patterns. This typically means two things: Making sure you get enough daily sun exposure (without sunscreen) and taking a Vitamin D supplement.

But why a supplement? Shouldn't we just be able to boost our vitamin D levels through dietary changes? Or from the sun?

We do get some vitamin D in fortified food sources like milk and cereal. It is also naturally occurring in egg yolk and fish oils. But those those sources are not enough. Our bodies are used to getting Vitamin D from the sun. Studies show that people today stay indoors more, get less exercise and wear more sunscreen, leading to less sun exposure. Sunscreen, especially with a SPF rating greater than 8, effectively blocks synthesis of vitamin D in the skin. Pregnancy and breastfeeding also draw down the body’s vitamin D stores.

Research also shows that vitamin D deficiency leads to increased risk of many cancers and heart disease, not to mention lowered immune functioning, sleep dysfunction and increases in chronic pain. It is also suspected to contribute to many autoimmune diseases and Autism.

You can have your vitamin D levels checked with the 25-hydroxyvitamin D test, also called a 25(OH)D. This requires a simple blood draw and is covered by most health insurance. For both children and adults, levels should be above 50 ng/ml year-round. It took almost a month for my results to come back and when I called the lab, they said that so many people are getting this test done that they were struggling to keep up with demand. And Quest Diagnostic Labs, the nation’s largest medical laboratory, recently admitted that they might have made errors in thousands of test results over the past two years.

It is important to work with your health care provider to determine your vitamin D needs. Toxicity can occur with long-term high doses of vitamin D. While this is a rare occurrence, it can make you sick. Vitamin D is fat soluble and not excreted as easily as many other supplements.

You should also do some research and be informed before you approach your doctor about supplementing vitamin D. I was nervous about taking “too much” and only supplemented 2000 iu of D3 per day after finding out I was deficient. When I had my blood work rechecked four months later, there was no change in my levels. This is because 2000 iu is only enough to maintain levels for a breastfeeding mother but not enough to actually raise them. Now after taking 5000 iu for three months, my levels are close to the normal range. If you feel you are at risk for deficiency, it is advisable to test your levels even if you are currently supplementing. This way, you can determine if you are indeed taking enough to meet your own body’s needs. I found the Vitamin D Council to be a good source of research-based information.

Be sure that your children are getting enough vitamin D as well. Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics doubled the recommended dosage of daily D for children and breast-fed babies. The new recommendation is 400 iu per day. Formula-fed babies get vitamin D in their milk. And remember, these dosages are for children who are not already deficient and who get some sun exposure. Your baby or child might need more. As always, check with your health care provider before changing or adding any supplements.

Besides supplementing D₃, you can also expose yourself to direct sunlight for 20 minutes daily. Make sure you have some skin exposed in order to soak in the sunlight! Sit by a window, go for a walk, play in your garden or at the park. If you can make significant lifestyle changes, you may do a couple of rounds of testing and decide that supplementation isn't necessary.

For our family, supplementing D₃ has made a huge overall improvement in our sleep. As for myself, I feel less achy and my immune system is functioning better! A simple blood test and an inexpensive supplement has made a lot of difference.