Mom and Tot Olympics

To celebrate the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, Stroller Strides and My Gym hosted a Mom and Tot Olympics on 8/8/08! It was so much fun. We started with a flag march with all the kids and moms marching around the room and waving their ribbons. There were mom games - like a wall sit competition - and kid games. Everything from a baby crawl to a mom/child 3-legged race. Moms and kids both had a ball playing in the gym and competing for ribbons and prizes together.

Childhood obesity is a huge problem facing our children's generation. Exercising IN FRONT of your children like we do in Stroller Strides helps them learn by seeing what you do! No matter how much you "talk" health at home, kids actually seeing you be healthy makes much more of an impact. And exercise WITH your kids - like at the Mom and Tot Olympics - help them learn exercise doens't always have to be a "work"-out. Sometimes it is a "fun"-out!

Easy at-home activities to help you and your children get moving together:

• Indoor volleyball game with balloons. Non-helium, of course. Add in a math challenge by counting how many times you can bounce it back and forth before it hits the ground.


• Obstacle course. Use anything in your house you can find. Ex/ crawl over 3 sofa pillows, tiptoe around the coffee table, climb over an ottoman, walk across a balance beam (masking tape on the floor) etc!


• Dance party. Turn your favorite kid music on and dance. Take turns with your child hitting the pause button and "freezing" your dance position in a funny pose!


• Hula Hoop contest.


• Nature/Treasure Walk. Walk around the block with your child and let her search for nature and treasure finds. One of the little joys of parenthood is letting your children show you the beauty in little things, like a white feather on the ground, that as adults we often miss.


• Play games - Hulabaloo and Hyper Dash (both sold at Target) are two quick moving favorites with a preschool educational twist as well!


• Follow the Leader. Walk like an elephant, hop like a frog, slither like a snake, gallop like a horse, march, walk like a robot, etc. all around your house. Let your child be the leader some too!


• Penny Pick-up. Dump a bunch of pennies on the floor. Set 2 cups up far across the room. You and your child race to get the most pennies in your own cup within a set timelimit. To make it harder you can make a rule that you may only collect 1 penny each trip. Count the pennies when you are done. Kids love to time themselves too. My daughter, Claire, will do this multiple times just to try to get faster and beat her previous result! So get a stopwatch. And let your child time your performance too.

Laugh and have fun! If you smile and enjoy yourself, your children will too!