Welcome to the New Year! It is my pleasure to introduce you to a few ideas on how to keep toddlers, through teens, active during the winter months. When the temperatures are dropping and the days are shorter, physical activity should not be left behind to longer television viewing or computer games.

In this article you’ll find some helpful tips on where to find opportunities for children of all ages to be physically active indoors, and I’ve included a great resource site designed to help physical educators, parents, and community members find positive solutions to a lack of physical activity in their community.

January is a great time to check out what indoor physical activity opportunities your community offers. Parents are finding more choices to keep kids active through innovative programs in facilities that are increasingly catering to the youth fitness movement. With a keen eye you can find an increasing number of kid-centered classes being offered at community centers, health clubs, yoga studios, martial arts studios, and schools.

Debra D'Acquisto
Health & Fitness Section Editor

G-WIS Skills Clinics

G-WIS (Great Ways to Introduce Sports) is a concept developed by Len Saunders in his goal to offer fitness, or sports-related, clinics to students and their parents. The idea originated from the reaction of parents to their children’s involvement with ACES projects. These parents often approached the author and expressed their wishes to have been involved with projects like these when they were children.

G-WIS (pronounced “Gee-Whiz”) skills clinics can offer an endless amount of topics such as softball, or the use of pedometers at home or work. When preparing for the project, Saunders indicates that an informative letter should be sent to parents to create interest and awareness. He suggests that the clinic should not be more than an hour long, and can be offered to coincide with other school activities such as parent/teacher night.

In his book, Saunders lists other topics that can be used along with sample letters, such as certificates and a to-do list, in order to help set the G-WIS skills clinic into motion. With the endless number of topics, the skills clinic has the potential to be offered many times throughout the school year.

6 Ways to Laugh off Stress - by Pamela Allardice

Parents who already have active children, and parents of children who are not physically active, can more easily find opportunities to fulfill the recommendations* for physical activity that lead to active healthy lives. Parents have a greater number of choices in being proactive about their children’s physical activity. Why? Because much of the nations youth are now the focus of an emerging new industry of creative and innovative programming.

Now that you have an idea of what to look for in regard to indoor physical activity opportunities, let me add one more bit; no matter what the age, kids will probably want to duplicate the varied uses of physioballs, resistance bands, bench steps, medicine balls, and jump ropes frequently used in adult based classes. So, be sure to look for programs and equipment that are appropriate to the age and physical development of the child.

Check out Operation FitKids for information on finding positive solutions to a lack of physical activity in your community, and to find great youth fitness products. Operation FitKids^TM is a youth outreach program of the American Council on Exercise. It’s focus is three-fold.

One, to improve the health and fitness of America’s youth by education and increased physical activity opportunities. Second, contact Operation FitKids (OFK) to help communities and school districts find a response to the lack of physical activity opportunities. And, by contacting OFK, you can obtain youth fitness support materials, staff training, mentoring and information on community partnering. Don’t forget to look at the resources site on for a short list of ACE recommended games. Examples: Fitness Skillastic; equipment, such as kid size stability balls, and more.

*Activity Recommendations:
American Academy of Pediatrics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Sledding
Provide the children with a sled and pull them around on it. Can you say "exercise?"

Rules for safer sledding this winter. Please read.

Pretend to be a snowflake
Ask the children to pretend to be a graceful snowflake falling from the sky. You could even play soothing music for them to dance to.

Snow Activities for Kids
When you and your kids feel cooped up in the winter, try bundling up and playing in the snow with these activities.

When the temperature drops, these are tips for staying active at indoor community facilities.

	Look for open gym time at the local High School, Community College, University.
	Check local community center to see if it has an indoor play area.
	Look for local climbing wall centers for special classes and open times.
	Check for open swim hours at Municipal, High School, and College pools.
	Find, in your local newspaper, clubs that promote indoor activities such as unicycling, dancing, billiards, ping pong, indoor soccer, and walking. Make it a family activity.
	Call health clubs, yoga studios, and dance studios for special youth sessions for non-members.
	Obtain brochures from the Chamber of Commerce that list Community recreation organizations.
	Check out indoor tennis facilities that offer open court time.
	Borrow exercise music/video from the local library.
	Call the local bowling alley, or indoor ice rink, for times set aside for youths.

7 Ways to Keep Your Family Fit Indoors
"Due to cutbacks in physical education, increased academic pressures, busy family lives, and larger portion sizes in restaurants and at home, kids are increasingly overweight. Add to that a freezing winter that makes everyone want to sit in front of the TV, and you have a recipe for serious health concerns. Try these strategies to get your family moving - this winter and all year long."

Frugal indoor fun - by Nancy Twigg
"Although the temptation may be to entertain the family by spending money (going to the mall, renting movies, visiting a fast food restaurant or arcade), there are ways to keep the kids busy without draining your pocketbook. Here is a list of indoor activity ideas that are all either completely free or cost very little."

Babies, toddlers & exercise
"Confining babies and young children to strollers, play pens, car and infant seats for hours at a time, may delay development such as rolling over, crawling, walking as well as delay cognitive development. Such restrictions can begin the path to sedentary preferences and childhood obesity, warns the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE)." Read the rest.

Cooking with Kids
"It's fun to work together in the kitchen, and your kids will surprise you by eating their own creations - even vegetables!"

Cooking with Kids for Dummies
This book contains:
A cookbook with dozens of family and kid-friendly recipes every age group can help make.

A 7-lesson tutorial on cooking basics, how to read a recipe, illustrated techniques for using a knife, stovetop and oven cooking methods, small appliances, and kitchen safety.

A nutrition guide with emphasis on kids' nutritional needs.

Meal planning for busy families that want to avoid packaged and fast food (with guidelines for making healthy food taste great).

Family profiles, including parents' practical ways for shopping and dining together - without going nuts!