Staying Healthy This Summer

The summer has begun, and so has the challenge of keeping everyone healthy, happy and occupied for six long weeks.  It is so tempting to make ice cream a daily treat and my boys could spend hours playing minecraft if I let them have their own way.  Push Doctor have written their top tips for keeping minds and bodies active this summer, so I thought I would share some of ours too.

Healthy Eating

• If your children are anything like mine, they will be asking for snacks pretty much constantly throughout the day! Make up little pots or bags of cut up fruit and veg and store them in the fridge so that they can help themselves to them to make life a little easier.

• If you have space in the garden or an allotment, try growing food with them.  Many of our friends tell us their children won’t touch a certain food on a plate, but they will happily eat one they have grown themselves.  Look for local pick your own farms too for fresh strawberries, cherries and apples as well as other things.

• Make flavoured ice cubes out of fresh juice to add to their water to encourage them to drink more.  When it is hotter or they are more active, they need to replenish their fluids more often and this makes it a bit more appealing.

Staying Active

• If you have a big enough garden, make an obstacle course, or get the children to. Soon they will be climbing, jumping and running with no idea they are actually doing exercise.  Use garden toys and household objects to make different challenges.

• Make your own scavenger hunt cards on pieces of cardboard you would otherwise recycle.  Right down different colours or objects and send the children out at the beach or park to collect all the items.  You could give them an old digital camera instead to get them to take photos of things they have found.

• Whilst the weather is warm, make an after dinner stroll part of your routine.  It doesn’t have to be far, but a little walk around the block before bed may help them sleep better too.

Keep Learning

• See if your local library has a reading challenge on.  Dylan has signed up and is already half way towards his first set of stickers.  All the children love visiting and choosing new books and it encourages them to love reading.

• Encourage older children to keep a holiday journal where they can write a paragraph each day about what they have done and enjoyed.  It is great for writing practice and is a lovely record for when they start back at school in September

• Use a rainy day as an excuse to try some science experiments at home.  Vinegar and baking soda volcanos are one of our favourites! Home made playdough is a big hit with the younger children and is great for their fine motor skills and imagination.

There are loads more ideas over on the Push Doctor website.  They also have a fantastic competition to win £400 worth of goodies over on their facebook page!

Collaborative Post