{"id":944,"date":"2009-04-02T08:57:22","date_gmt":"2009-04-02T16:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.homewiththekids.com\/blog\/?p=944"},"modified":"2009-04-02T08:57:22","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T16:57:22","slug":"healthy-habits-for-your-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homewiththekids.com\/blog\/healthy-habits-for-your-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy Habits for Your Family"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Spring is a great time of year to think about your family&#8217;s habits and what you can do to keep your kids healthy. The weather is getting better in most areas, and even when it&#8217;s bad you can think about what you would like to do as a family to build better habits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Gardening<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Whether you&#8217;re in a home or an apartment, gardening can be a fun, healthy habit. If you aren&#8217;t into digging in the yard or don&#8217;t have one, you can plant herbs and maybe some tomatoes in containers.<\/p>\n<p>Growing your own herbs or other foods can encourage a lot of healthy habits. My kids love to nibble on freshly picked basil leaves and mint leaves, for example. They also add a great flavor to your cooking.<br \/>\n<strong><br \/>\nGet Outdoors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Turn off the TV and the computer and play or exercise as a family outdoors. A walk around the block is a wonderful family activity you can do in most areas. Alternatively you can go to a park or play in your own yard together.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Play Indoors<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No, not on the computer. Not video games. Well, maybe some of the more active video games; the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&amp;location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref%255F%3Dnb%255Fss%255Fgw%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dwii%2520fit%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Daps&amp;tag=homewiththeki-20&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957\">Wii Fit<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=homewiththeki-20&amp;l=ur2&amp;o=1\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>; does have some good points when you&#8217;re trying to be healthy and active.<\/p>\n<p>Then again, you can make room for the kids to dance. Younger kids in particular will love this. A bit of music and some encouragement and they&#8217;re off.<\/p>\n<p>Creative play is fun too, especially for the younger children. Help them build a fort. Put on a puppet show. Encourage silliness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don&#8217;t Forget the Chores<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah, no fun and sometimes hard to enforce, but chores are good for the entire family. It helps to keep your home functioning and clean. Even very young children can help. The sooner you get started the more of a habit it will become for everyone.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re having trouble getting anyone to do chores, consider a chore chart or other motivation. My kids love their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B000NTZL7U?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=homewiththeki-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B000NTZL7U\">magnetic chore charts<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none !important; margin:0px !important;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=homewiththeki-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000NTZL7U\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/>, and we set rewards for accomplishing their chores on a weekly basis. It&#8217;s still possible to slip up and start ignoring the charts, but once you have the habit they&#8217;re quite helpful. Or you can consider alternatives that work better for your family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Walk to School<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At least where possible. I live within blocks of my daughter&#8217;s school, and due to the traffic involved, walking can actually be faster than driving there. It&#8217;s just about a 7 minute walk by myself, 10 with kids.<\/p>\n<p>If it&#8217;s too far to walk, it may not be too far for riding bicycles with kids who are old enough. Schools in my area only allow that for grade 3 and up. You&#8217;ll save gas and get a nice bit of exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Walking to school can also be a great time to have a conversation with your kids. They don&#8217;t have to be on any big topics, just whatever comes to mind.<\/p>\n<p>Keeping your family active and cutting back on the TV and computer habits can help you to enjoy your time together more. Certainly there will be times that you need a break from doing things together, but overall it&#8217;s a good way to make special time together on a regular basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spring is a great time of year to think about your family&#8217;s habits and what you can do to keep your kids healthy. The weather is getting better in most areas, and even when it&#8217;s bad you can think about what you would like to do as a family&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[153,160,173,202,1337],"class_list":["post-944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","category-stay-at-home-moms","tag-exercise","tag-family-activities","tag-fitness","tag-healthy-habits","tag-parenting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Healthy Habits for Your Family - Home with the Kids Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.homewiththekids.com\/blog\/healthy-habits-for-your-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Healthy Habits for Your Family - Home with the Kids Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Spring is a great time of year to think about your family&#8217;s habits and what you can do to keep your kids healthy. 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