During the holidays, routine can become a less important part of our lives! With visiting family and friends, we tend to eat more. We don’t always know how to keep the children busy. Here are a few ideas to stay active and maintain healthy eating habits over the holidays:
Be active outdoors:
- Have a neighbourhood treasure hunt – ask the children to find specific things (a Santa Claus, a star, something green, a Christmas tree, etc.);
- Go skating as a family;
- Make snow people or animals;
- Go tobogganing;
- Go for a walk in the park or in the neighbourhood to look at the coloured lights on the houses;
- Make snow angels;
- Ask the children to help you shovel the snow in the yard (using children’s shovels);
- Don’t forget to dress up warmly in layers before you go outside!
Be active indoors:
- Take the family swimming;
- Make an obstacle course in your living room with furniture and materials you have at hand: go around the sofa, crawl under the chair, jump over a cushion, etc.
- Play Simon Says;
- Make an indoor hopscotch game;
- Dance to your favourite song;
- Ask the children to help with the housework (see our October newsletter for more information: https://healthystartkids.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2014-10.pdf
Maintain healthy eating:
- Use your leftover turkey to make Terrific Turkey Tacos (see our Recipe of the Month above);
- Choose healthy snacks such as raw vegetables, fruit, nuts (unsalted), hard-boiled eggs, etc.
- Cook together as a family (see Food Flair parent activity cards for some simple recipe ideas like apple-cheddar quesadillas, sunomono salad, or hummus: http://decoda.ca/resources/online-resources/resources-child-family-literacy/leap-resources/page/3/?t=1876&st=40!
And don’t forget the most important thing: have fun!
References:
“12 days of active holiday fun”, Active for life, December 18, 2013, http://activeforlife.com/12-days-active-holiday-fun/
Catherine Cameron, “Five fun winter activities for families”, ParticipAction, January 6, 2014, http://www.participaction.com/make-friends-with-winter/