Keep Children Active During the Winter Months: Thinking Outside the (X) Box

Too often, physical activity is associated with doing things outdoors, while watching television and playing video games are the primary things that come to mind when thinking of what children can do indoors. However, children's exercise routines need not come to a grinding halt just because it is too cold to go outside. This commentary asks parents to find some place where they can play, energetically, inside!

Children hear the phrase "Please go outside and play" far more frequently in the summer months. During the winter months, going outside to play is a much more difficult proposition - unless perhaps there is a skating rink, sledding hill, or ski-slope nearby. An easy option for busy parents is to let children fulfill their need to play by playing inside on video games, such as Microsoft's Xbox. Some people believe video games make great babysitters, as they can serve to keep children entertained for many hours on long winter days.

Here is something to keep in mind. Children and teenagers need more exercise than adults do. Although video games might keep youngsters entertained, they do not provide the physical stimulation that vigorous exercise can provide. Restricting children from physical activity for 3-4 weeks over the holiday season is not in the best interests of anyone in the family. What can parents do then, when sending children outside to play is not an option, and the indoor alternative (video games) is great for relieving boredom but inadequate for physical health?

Parents can provide children with indoor physical activity throughout the winter months! This doesn't mean letting young children turn the living room sofa into a trampoline for several hours each day, or setting up a kickball field in the basement. This means getting in the car and driving children to 'high energy' indoor sporting and physical activity venues. Here are just a few activities children and teens would really enjoy; activities that are a worthy substitute for a couple of additional hours on the Xbox or PS2:

	Swimming at a university or local pool
	Rock climbing at an indoor rock climbing gym
	Dance classes, ballet, gymnastics...
	Martial arts classes such as karate or kung-fu
	Local basketball and indoor soccer competitions

Hopefully you can add to their holiday 'to do' list the time to google information (google.com) on sporting and physical activity opportunities in your local area.

Darren Dale
Health & Fitness Section Editor

An Unforgettable Health & Fitness Fair!

'An Unforgettable Health & Fitness Fair' is a great way to promote your physical education program in your school as well as your community. Since the program offers free advertising for local businesses, you will be surprised how many community members get involved.

This fair is for all grade-levels, as the whole school will be involved. The first step is to talk with your principle and school nurse (if you have one) to determine the health and fitness topics and presenters. When considering the topics, take into consideration the audience for the event. Although this activity can be designed for any grade level, you want to make sure it is applicable to the grade(s) that is/are putting it on.

In working with his 5th grade classroom teachers, the author found it best to have four or five stations and rotate the students to each. For example: they divided the 70 5th-grade students into five groups of 14 children (having their teachers decide how they should be divided). Each group of students would start at one of the stations set up in the school. Health professionals from the local community also staff each of the five stations. Here is an example of some possible stations:

	Aerobics Move Me presented by a local health club.
	Your Cardiovascular System presented by a local doctor's office.
	Oral Hygiene presented by a local dentist's office.

Some preparation tips: It is important to maintain constant communication with all of the presenters prior to the event, as well as preparing the children ahead of time. It is also important to inform parents of what you are planning to do, and what you would like their child to do.

This chapter includes sample invitation letters to local businesses, parent permission form, teacher letters, as well as a sample letter to the local media.

Santa has a secret Santa 'gift' for everyone during the holiday season. This gift is in demonstrating how easy it is to enjoy the holidays, be happy and jolly, travel to see friends, spread joy and cheer, and (from a nutritional standpoint) enjoy all the cookies and milk that kind people offer you. Santa shows us that there need not be angst, and there need not be fretting about what (or how much) we eat during the holidays. Why? The answer is simple. The holiday season doesn't last very long.

Changing your eating habits for a few weeks a year - consuming slightly more calories or slightly less nutritious food - will have minimal effect on the dietary concern that most people appear to worry about, the fear of putting on weight. It is true that Santa lives only in our imaginations, yet so does the (irrational) belief that eating too much Christmas pudding or holiday chocolate will cause our waistlines to expand without mercy.

A week or more can go by without adults seeing any decrease in aerobic fitness, flexibility, or muscular strength and endurance. It is only after approximately two weeks of little or no physical activity, that meaningful decrements in parameters such as V02 max, or muscular strength start to occur. So, if you run a lot for recreation, 2 weeks of lower-intensity, lower volume training over the holiday season is not going to matter too much; the same is said for the recreational weight-lifter who does not make it into the gymnasium as much during the holiday season.

Two additional points need to be said however:
1) Doing little or no exercise for 2 weeks or longer (i.e., deciding to take a month off) will result in substantial declines in fitness or strength. In other words, a person can cut back on their exercise and not 'suffer' too much for about 10-14 days. Continuing to stay away from exercise beyond 14 or so days will result in big declines.

2) For athletes (who are beginning at higher levels of performance), 3-6 days of light, low-volume training will not be a problem. It may in fact be beneficial, and is what is commonly known as 'tapering.' However, the athlete who decides to take a 2-4 week break from training over the holidays cannot expect to resume their conditioning program without some decreases in fitness (decreases potentially critical from the point of view of sporting performance).

The Science of Aging (Grades 6-8 , 9-12 )
Debating Issues Surrounding Scientific Experiments in Longevity - In this lesson, students reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. Learning is synthesized as they each write a short story that reflects their own ethical and/or philosophical beliefs on aging and longevity.

Nothing to Sneeze At (Grades 6-8 , 9-12 )
Creating Public Service Campaigns to Convey Information About Avian Flu -. In this two-day lesson, students research and create public service campaigns to inform different populations in their community about avian flu, a current global health concern.

Good For You? (Grades 6-8 , 9-12 )
Investigating the Health Benefits of Chocolate - In this lesson, students share opinions about nutrition. They then compare the nutritional values of a snack product claiming health benefits with a candy product. Learning is synthesized by reflecting on the responsibility of companies, individuals and the government in determining whether a product lives up to its claims.

It Might Come in Handy (Grades 6-8 , 9-12 )
Learning About Hand Washing and Communicable Disease - In this lesson, students will learn about the latest study on routine hand washing practices. They will then research some of the possible communicable diseases that can be transmitted by having lax hygiene.

Chew on This! (Grades 6-8 , 9-12 )
Creating Dental Health Pamphlets for Children
In this lesson, students develop pamphlets for a dental health mentoring program that educates younger children about caring for their teeth.

Healthy Relations (Grades 6-8 , 9-12 )
Creating Educational Skits to Better Patient-Doctor Relationships - In this lesson, students draw on their own experiences with health care to create educational skits to better doctor-patient relationships. For homework, they create guidelines and write recommendations for an appropriate government role.

Exercise for Good Health Lesson Plan (3-5)
The library media specialist and the classroom teacher or physical education teacher may work on this activity together in the library media center. Students gather facts and information about exercise and physical fitness.

Family Food Zone Resource Site
A nutrition resource for moms, promoting child health through good lifelong eating habits that include food choices from the five food groups in the Food Guide Pyramid.

The effects of carbon monoxide poisoning can be devastating, and this gas can and does kill thousands of people each year. Some people don't even realize that they have been poisoned, simply slipping away into unconsciousness or a deep sleep from which they will never reawaken. For those that don't die, carbon monoxide poisoning can still cause long term damage and permanent damage and disability. It is advisable for everyone to learn about the effects of this poisoning, and more importantly how this poisoning comes about, and how to minimize on the risks.

	From the CDC: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Fact Sheet
	Safety: Natural Gas Safety
	Carbon Monoxide is Everybody's Business - This site has LOTS of recent articles involving cases of people poisoned by carbon monoxide. This article tells how two kids became unconscious while their mom was sweeping snow off the running car!
	Carbon monoxide monitor a must