Tips para mantener niños activos

On your marks ...Magnus Scheving's top 10 tips for getting kids active

1 Take 10 minutes a day, preferably before dinner, and do something active together. Ask the kids to come up with diff erent kinds of movement. Write each one on a piece of paper, put it in a bowl and pick one each day. That is the movement you have to do.

2 Teach the kids dances from when you were young. Play music - loud - and dance together. Or ask the kids to teach you new dances.

3 Hide fruit around the house and have a scavenger hunt. With very few props you could turn it into a pirate story. Remember that kids have a big imagination.

4 Take a walk around your old neighboorhood and tell the kids stories from when you were young. "This is where we used to play football - and this is where I learned to ride a bike."

5 Use the garden. Build a "castle" (you can use a cardboard box). You are the evil dragon that is protecting the treasures in the castle. The kids have to get the treasure.

6 Teach the children the games that you played when you were young, such as hide and seek, freeze tag etc.

7 Turn the living room into something exciting, for example, a "pool full of dangerous crocodiles". Arrange pillows and furniture so the kids can jump and/or climb between them.

8 Hide old clothes around the house. The kids have to find them and dress up. Have a healthy prize for the funniest dress combination.

9 One hour a week, try something new. How about ice skating, sledding, volleyball or bowling?

10 Think of a word, for example "kangaroo" (don't tell the kids). Take the kids for a walk, or cycle together. On the first corner, stop and ask them to spot a thing that starts with the first letter in your word. Write it down. Continue asking the kids to find things with letters that match your word. When you are home you have to jump like a kangaroo 20 times! To end the day, tell the kids about kangaroos and where they come from. What I like about this is that we're doing many things together at the same time. I can teach basic traffic rules, we're practising the alphabet, we're doing something active and we're learning about new things.