Tuesday Tips & Tricks: Fitting in activity

What a busy week! Children home, husband home, shopping and baking to be done! Posts will likely be few and far between this week and next as we all celebrate love, life and family over the holidays.

Today's tip is about helping your kids (and yourself) to keep active during these crazy holidays. My children love to watch videos, and when I'm busy I let them! Our general rule is about an hour a day. If they want more than that they have to earn it. How do my kids earn a video or a little TV? Smile practice, jumping jacks and dancing!

I started requiring this of the kids before a program because they usually want to watch TV when they are tired and grumpy and bored. After the show is over, instead of feeling better, they are usually tired and grumpy and bored. So, to get them feeling good before a video we do:

10 jumping jacks (unless they feel challenged and say, "I bet I can do 20!";
10 Practice smiles (which gets them giggling and happy), and
1 fun song to dance to (we just turn on the radio to something fast).

Laughing, jumping and having fun together gets us all in a better mood! When they 30-minute video is over, the kids are usually in the mood for some good, active play!

If you don't hear from me again until next week, I wish you all a wonderful and happy holiday!