34 Easy Ways to Work More Activity Into Your Family’s Day

Becoming more physically active is easier than you think! Start slowly by adding physical activities that you enjoy into your daily routine and build your way up to 30-60 minutes of moderate activity each day. Choose a variety of activities from the lists below:

Preschoolers

• Encourage your young kids to play.
• Provide a safe, nurturing and minimally structured play environment.
• Get your child to climb, swing and play at the local playground.
• Instead of using a pram or stroller, encourage your child to walk part of the way.
• Too wet or cold out? Turn up the music and have a dance party.

Children

• Take a walk/wheel after supper—and make it an adventure.
• Organize neighbourhood games to help children make active choices.
• Dance, dance, dance.
• Create a walking/wheeling school bus.
• Pretend to slither like a snake and roll like a rolling pin down a small grassy slope.
• Play throwing games, including having your child throw at a target as hard as they can.
• Jump, make shapes in the air or jump to see how high or far you can go.
• Join learn-to-swim programs.
• Ride a tricycle, or a bike with or without training wheels to develop dynamic balance.
• Encourage unstructured play with their friends everyday.
• Enroll your child in multi-sport programs or in a wide range of different activities.
• Leave the car at home when going on short trips.
• Have your child throw with their right and left hand.
• Jump from one foot and from both.
• Introduce your child to skates or skis so they can learn to slide.
• Play catching games using a wide range of soft objects.

Parents

• Focus on daily physical activity and not just “exercise”! Scrub, dig, shovel, walk, play ride or wheel through your day.
• Join a gym, and keep it fresh by taking classes such as boxing, yoga, combat training or step.
• Enter a charity walk.
• Instead of turning on the TV after dinner, go for a walk with your partner, dog or children.
• Take public transportation.
• Use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.
• Take a break from work and go for a walk or wheel.
• Join your local sport league—most leagues will offer a variety of sports and activities at both recreational and competitive levels.
• Take swimming or aquatic classes.
• Form a neighbourhood walking or wheeling group.
• Go dancing!
• Move from competitive sport to volunteering as a coach, official or administrator.
• Move from one aspect of sport to another. For instance, if you’re a middle distance runner or a cyclist, try becoming a runner for visually impaired athletes or a tandem cyclist for the Paralympic Games.