3 ways to get your kids fit for less money

Obesity, even among children, is a growing problem in our country. Some of the most common causes include genetics, an unhealthy diet and lack of exercise, and at least on those last two counts, parents can help their kids stay on the right track and enjoy an optimal quality of life.

Every Thursday, I volunteer at my daughter’s elementary school for physical education class. We are one of many fortunate schools who’ve raised money through our Parent Teacher Association to keep physical education in our school. While the kids only have one day of it a week, it’s a start and it teaches our kids the importance of staying physically active.

From my experience, children need some sort of physical activity on a daily basis or they can start to get cranky. Both my children are not currently doing any sports after school, so I’m always looking for ways to keep them active in an affordable way. After much research, I found three amazing options that I hope will also keep your kids engaged, challenged and, most importantly, having lots of fun.

Chi Universe Phresh Mats and Yoga App: I’ve tried doing yoga with my kids and sending them to a yoga studio, but this tool is by far the best yoga experience for my kids. First and foremost, the mats are such an ingenious invention that makes yoga makes sense for kids and even newbie adults. Each mat comes with symbols on the mat which shows where you should have your hands, legs and feet during different positions. The symbols included are a star, hearts, triangles, tear drops, planets and more.

The mat comes with a poster that includes poses from beginner to advanced on one side and names of poses on a map on the other. With each pose showing where to place your hands and legs, it’s self- explanatory and even my 5-year-old figured out the poses alone. I use to have to monitor my kids in their yoga poses to make sure they were doing them correctly, but it’s nice to see that a young child can figure it out solo.

Chi Universe also has an app on iTunes for 99 cents. The poses are grouped from beginner to advanced and you just have to slide the screen up each time you are done with the pose. The children seem to love it since it becomes more of an interactive experience for them. We’ve had it for a week and it’s worked out well for us, plus my children and their friends love doing it on their playdates.

LeapBand from LeapFrog: Kids are very digitally smart these days and they can handle an iPad or a smartphone better than most adults can. Back in the day, we had Tamagochi, which was a digital pet that you raised. While it caused an obsession among owners to keep their pets healthy and alive, the LeapBand is one step further in that the kids have to be active in order to earn things for their pets.

While this sort of fitness tracker may not have made sense for my generation, in today’s world, it’s another way to get kids moving and still feel like they’re playing their favorite online game. Of course, you don’t want them to be on it 24/7 and you can actually have it turned off during school hours and have it available at the time you set it. Another great benefit is that you can monitor your child’s fitness activity via your online account.

As for age, I would use it for kids under 7 years old. My 8-year-old quickly figured out that the watch didn’t have a sensor to monitor if my 5-year-old was jumping or not and at the end of a challenge she would be rewarded regardless. My 5-year-old didn’t care because she was focused on earning points and did what the audio told her to do. The one thing I didn’t like was that the audio was really hard to hear outdoors and even indoors. My daughter had to keep it close to her ears to follow along. I do love that the battery is rechargeable and that it’s water resistant. All in all, my daughter did a lot of jumping, crawling and letting out of steam before moving on with the rest of her day.

KidTribe HooperSize with Miss Kellee by Hoopnotica: Who doesn’t love hula-hooping? My kids love doing it and so do I. The best part about it is that it hardly feels like a workout. It can also bring back lots of fun childhood memories for parents.

My kids have already mastered the part of hooping that we all know and they’ve always been interested in doing tricks. That’s when I discovered Hoopnotica.

For kids, the KidTribe HooperSize video with Miss Kellee is so much fun. She comes out in the lab coat and explains the movements. You can learn how to hoop on your neck, do a maneuver called the waterfall and even learn how to do John Travolta’s signature move where you point one arm up and switch. You can choose to use your store-bought hoop, but wanting the full Hoopnotica experience, I bought one of their hoops. While it’s pricier, you can change up the sizes within the hoop because they are detachable and I can adjust it to meet my needs as well as those of my two children.

If you want a fun exercise for your kids, this is the way to go. They won’t even know that they are exercising, which is the best part!

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3 Ways to Get Your Kids Fit for Less Money originally appeared on usnews.com

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