Weight Loss Tips

Fun Ways to Stay Active This Summer

School is out for the summer, but that doesn’t mean that your childhood obesity concerns can take a break as well. The two months of summer are a great opportunity for your child to unwind and rejuvenate as they prepare for the next school year, but this doesn’t have to be done by watching TV for hours on end. Instead, get your kids off the couch and into the backyard by coming up with fun game ideas that will have them asking for more playtime all summer long.

Your entire family can lose weight in Jacksonville this summer by enjoying the heat, eating healthy and playing some fun backyard games. Here are a few ideas that we came up with to stay active this summer!

Water Balloon Volley Ball

Who needs a pool? Tell the kids to get their bathing suits on and head outdoors for this fun game where everyone is bound to get wet. To play this game, you will need a net, a couple of bed sheets and a whole bunch of water balloons. This game can be played with as few as four or as many as 16 kids!

How to play

Before you get started, go ahead and fill up as many water balloons as you can. Part of the fun of this game is that the balloons will break and splash, so you will want more on hand to keep the fun going.

Split your kids, family and friends into two teams. The rules of the game are just like Volleyball, you want the balloons to travel over the net and not hit the ground. If they do, the other team gets a point. If you try to smack the balloons like a volleyball the balloons will break, and while that can be fun it is not much of a game.

This is where the bed sheets come in! Each team will catapult the balloons over the net with the bed sheet, with a child on each corner or side, depending on how many participants you have. If you have enough players, make it a doubles round and have two balloons going at once.

Water Bucket Relay

This is one game that will have your kids feeling a bit sore the next day as they get a full body workout running around the backyard with full buckets of water. This game doesn’t require any balloons but is also great in the heat as your kids are likely to get splashed head to toe with water from their bucket.

How to play

For this game you are going to need a hose and a few small buckets—the type that you would bring to the beach to make sandcastles with—and empty water basins or tubs. Line your kids up in the backyard for a relay race and give each team a bucket. Fill the bucket as much as possible and then yell start.

The goal of the game is to see who can fill the empty basin at the other end of the lawn first, without dropping any water along the way. If water splashes out of the bucket while they run then they need to go back to the finish line and restart. After a few times restarted, your kids will realize that they can’t fill the bucket all the way to the top if they are going to run to the other side without it splashing. This game involves a lot of running, a lot of lifting and a lot of laughing, making it a great full body workout for everyone involved.

Do you have any favorite games you love to play during the summer? Share some ideas with us in the comments below—we are always looking for new games to get kids active over the summer.