Here are a few of our favorite family activities for every season to help make all your days joyous and bright.
If you have children you know what a challenge it can be to keep them entertained. Sure, it is easy to plop them down in front of the TV or to hook up the video game console. But with the declining health of our nation's children, you need to get your children engaged in some active play that not only engages their minds, but gets them moving. Most local and state governments maintain parks that are well-suited for this purpose. Within 90 minutes drive from my house in Pennsylvania, there are no less than 100 Local, County, State, or National Parks. Here are just a handful of ideas to keep your kids busy outside (and all of them are free or cheap!).
Disc (or Frisbee) Golf
We have a large disc golf course in our county park and about one hour away, there is one in the woods at the state park. These "golf courses" are played with a Frisbee. Each player throws the Frisbee toward the goal which is a metal pole with a basket and chains to catch the flying disc. It is played just like golf with a tee area where you throw your disc, and a "hole" which is the aforementioned metal pole. Score is kept just like golf. And, you will find that many of the courses are designed like golf courses with water hazards, mud traps, and long "fairways" through the forest. You get a lot of walking exercise and throwing the disc around natural hazards can be a challenge!
Geocaching
This new sport is catching on like crazy! It is a treasure hunt for modern, hidden treasure, where the "X" on your pirate map are actually GPS coordinates. You can find the hidden caches on the geocaching.com website. Once you have the coordinates, it is a matter of plugging them into your handheld GPS and heading out into the woods. If you own a GPS then there is no cost for this activity. Kids love this as they can pretend to be pirates searching for a secret treasure! They learn valuable skills such as direction (North, South, East, and West) and distance (0.37 miles to the destination). We took a bunch of school children on a hunt recently and they loved it!
These are just 2 simple ideas to get your kids from in front of the TV and outside having fun! Both of these activities are great for all ages and will not only help them exercise, but will get them out in nature.
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