Kinetics» Play

Health advice from 1908: Tour de France edition

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 02:04:08 +0000

Back by popular demand, more insights from the textbook, Introductory Physiology and Hygiene, by H. W. Conn, Ph.D., published by Silver, Burdett and Company, in 1908.

Apparently the Tour de France riders never learned as children that they should sit straight, ride slowly, and stop before they are too tired. However, they did learn about the importance of ‘out-of-door’ exercise.

The handwriting over the chapter title reads “Begin” most likely marking the start of a lesson or assignment. Almost all the chapters have this, and the end of the chapter on ‘How to strengthen the muscles’ has the handwriting, “End of 1st quarter.”

Don’t miss Twelve Everyday Health Rules from the same book which was picked up by the NIH MedlinePlus Magazine spring/summer 2010 edition for their ‘Then & Now” feature.

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Preparing for Life’s Little Mishaps While Engaging Your Kids in Outdoor Play

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Wed, 05 May 2010 02:45:30 +0000

‘A previously skinned knee’ courtesy of massdistraction on Flickr

Guest post by Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA

“Play, Incorporating Animistic and Magical Thinking Is Important Because It:
Fosters the healthy, creative and emotional growth of a child;
Forms the best foundation for later intellectual growth.
Provides a way in which children get to know the world and creates possibilities for different ways of responding to it.
Fosters empathy and wonder.”
- Rachel Carson, “A Sense of Wonder”

Remember Red Light, Green Light; One-Two-Three; Tag, You’re It; Mother, May I? Or Kick-Ball? These are just some of the good ole’ fashioned outdoor games kids used to play, and they are making a come-back. There’s nothing better than the sound of kids playing outdoors. Even kids playing outside making up their own games can bring them a lot joy and can be great exercise. With all the technology that surrounds us today, it’s great to see kids playing in the park, and in their backyards.

It’s no secret that outdoor play and fresh air are great for kids overall physical and emotional well-being. In fact, a study in the journal Pediatrics concludes that children ages 8 and 9 who had more than 15 minutes of recess had better classroom behavior. This study suggests that school children in this age group should be provided with daily recess.

If you’re looking for some ideas to help keep your kids playing outside, Disney Family.com lists ‘10 Fun Outdoor Games for Kids.’ From Big Foot Relay to Pick Pocket Tag to Name-It Ball, you’ll find some ideas here that will keep your kids active.

Be prepared for life’s little mishaps
As the saying goes, kids will be kids. You never know when a fall or a bump on the head may land them in the ER. Even with a watchful eye, sometimes things are bound to happen. But don’t let this interfere with your child’s free-play.

Being prepared can help you navigate the ER maze and can lessen your anxiety knowing you have all the necessary information at your fingertips. As a registered nurse and an administrative head nurse who covers the pediatric ER, I know it’s not uncommon for parents to be anxious. And as a mom, I understand this too. I’ve been on both sides. Let’s face it; the ER can be overwhelming and frightening. Being prepared is your first step in taking charge of you and your family’s health in the ER.

Here are some key pointers to help you be proactive. These are excerpted from an article I wrote as a medical contributor to Real Simple magazine on emergency rooms.

Always carry a list of your children’s medications and their medical history with you
The emergency room can be scary and answering the simplest questions can be difficult. Having everything written down makes it easy for the doctors and nurses to get an accurate health history. You’ll still need to answer questions by the staff, but having your updated medication list and medical history list with you can be a life saver.

Where can you find a medical history form?
There are some sites where you can create a small information card. However, some people are on so many medications that the small size isn’t sufficient. If your child is on an inhaler for asthma make sure you include it on the medical form. Does your child take any medications for ADHD? Does your child have allergies? What type? Food? Or man made? Be specific. Do they have any past hospital admissions? This is just some of the information you need to include. For a 6×4 size that you can simply carry in a photo wallet, I’ve created one for you (Download the card). Simply print, complete and carry. Keep a list for you, your kids, spouse or significant other, parents and grandparents. It’s great for college students as well. Men can simply fold and carry in a small wallet.

Consent to Treat Form
Parents, in case you’re not with your child at the time of the mishap, you can give your caregiver a consent-to-treat form. In case of an emergency, having a notarized consent-to-treat form signed by the child’s caregiver will prevent treatment from being delayed. Of course any life-threatening illnesses or injuries are always top priority, but for a non-critical case, having the proper forms will help expedite the process. Find the consent-to-treat form at http://emergencycareforyou.org/, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Web site. (A friendly reminder, for any non-threatening life emergency, even with a consent-to-treat form it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be seen right away. Your child will be triaged by the nurse.)

Here are a few simple tips:

The Dos:

Communicate clearly with the doctors and nurses in the ER
Be calm
Be patient
Be assertive
Be persistent
Be honest and provide a complete and accurate health history

The Don’ts:

Don’t be rude, loud or obnoxious
Don’t be combative or angry
Don’t lie about your child’s condition

We’d love to hear from you. Does your child spend time playing outdoors? What type of games do they like to play? In case of a little mishap that may land your child in the ER, are you prepared? Do you carry a medical history form with you, as a “just in case?” If not, we hope you’ll download the free form and carry it with you, just in case!

About Barbara Ficarra, RN, BSN, MPA
Barbara is an award-winning journalist, media broadcaster, media trainer, medical blogger, speaker, and health expert. She is creator, executive producer and host of the Health in 30® radio show, a live 30-minute program that brings listeners the latest health and medical news and information with leading medical experts, and empowers listeners to take charge of their health.

Barbara is founder and editor-in-chief of Healthin30.com. Her blogs on Healthin30.com offer practical advice for spectacular health, focusing on prevention and patient empowerment and Barbara shares a nurse’s inside perspective on healthy living and personal health, as well as the latest legal and political health care issues making all the headlines. Barbara sorts through latest research and provides readers with relevant information without any of the confusing medical jargon.

Barbara is a featured writer on Huffingtonpost. Her blogs appear in the Living, Health, Entertainment, Addiction and Recovery Section; to name a few. She has received awards for her health journalism, including the Journalism Award of Excellence from the American College of Emergency Physicians. The winning program, “Ins and Outs of the ER,” covered what patients should expect in the ER and the challenges created by crowding and waiting.

Barbara is a registered nurse active on the front lines of health care: She is a head nurse at a level 2 trauma center and covers multiple medical and surgical units, critical care, oncology, cardiology and step-down units, the psychiatric in-patient unit and the women’s and children’s units including the pediatric emergency room. Her clinical experience ranges from oncology to general medicine and surgery.

Barbara is a patient advocate who always encourages patients and their families to be proactive and take charge of their health. Barbara focuses on patient (health consumer) empowerment and engagement and healthy living. Barbara is available for consulting and media training as well as speaking presentations for the general public and medical professionals. You can learn more and reach her at http://healthin30.com/.

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Twelve Everyday Health Rules–From 1908

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 02:43:35 +0000

I collect vintage health / wellness / fitness / physiology textbooks. While flipping through some of the books recently, I came across this wonderful set of everyday health rules. The list is from the first book in the series, Introductory Physiology and Hygiene, by H. W. Conn, Ph.D., published by Silver, Burdett and Company, in 1908. Most of the rules may be even more applicable today than they were over a century ago. Enjoy!

And don’t miss the wonderful ‘A 1930 Medical Record’ from Bob Coffield’s Health Care Law Blog.

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The Magic of Red Helmets

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:16:54 +0000

Our ability to balance and grasp objects and accelerate our limbs through space allows us to experience the multidimensional, multisensory, global playground around us. Our urge to play and explore are so innately woven into our DNA that we routinely create new ways to engage with our universe – to experience wind and water and sky and earth. Extreme sports, such as those on display in the video above, showcase this innate urge to play.

Extreme sports are not just for highly trained, technically savvy adults. The Extreme Sports Camp (ESC) in Colorado offers extreme sports for individuals ages 5 and up with an autism spectrum disorder.

“”My son not only had the time of his life at this camp, but he was given the opportunity to overcome so many of his fears. Our children are not often challenged to the extent that I believe they should be, for their best benefit. This one week adventure provided a supportive environment that allowed him to experience many things beyond his typical boundaries, and gave him the chance to gain confidence, overcome fears and anxieties, and feel better about confronting new and not always so welcoming opportunities in the future.” – Laura from Tennessee

Like their professional and playful kindred spirits, the children also wear red helmets (and white ones and yellow ones). And they also wear big smiles on their faces.

We’re often admonished to “walk, don’t run.” But if we don’t occasionally try to run our fastest (or jump or climb) and feel the wind in our hair and the ground passing beneath our feet, how will we know what we’re capable of, what we have to watch out for, and what we ultimately can achieve?

About The Red Helmet video
This film was part of the Nissan Outdoor Games in 2008. Over one week, 5 teams compete to showcase 5 sports in a 5-minute film. Renowned kayakers, mountain-bikers, climbers, paragliders and base jumpers perform in teams with a cameraman and photographer to develop the most engaging interpretation of adventure sports in the outdoor environment. The competition takes place in Interlaken, Switzerland. The song featured in the video is ‘Cold Cold’ from the album Grus americanus by the band Stephanie’s Id.

Kids and Media Use: Letting their fingers do the walking?

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:17:10 +0000

‘Cell phones’ courtesy of JR Paris on Flickr

Seven hours and 38 minutes. It’s how much time you may spend sleeping each night or working each day. It’s also how much time kids ages 8-18 spend on average each day consuming media, such as watching TV, listening to music, and using a computer, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study.

The study, Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, reveals astounding numbers that surprised the researchers and created their own media mayhem. Some of the mind-boggling numbers include:

Of the 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) 8-18 year-olds spend on average using entertainment media across a typical day, much of that time is spent ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time). The result is that youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
Black and Hispanic children consume nearly 4½ hours more total media daily (13 hours of total media exposure for Hispanics and for Blacks, and about 8½ for Whites). Black children spend nearly 6 hours and Hispanics just under 5½ hours watching TV, compared to roughly 3½ hours a day for White youth. Differences by race/ethnicity remain even after controlling for other factors such as age, parents’ education, and single vs. two-parent homes.
Youth ownership of cell phones increased from 39% to 66% over the past 5 years. Ownership of iPods and other MP3 players soared from 18% to 76%.
This group spends more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33). (Texting was not measured.)
Media use increases substantially when children hit the 11-14 year-old age group, to a total media exposure of almost 12 hours per day (vs. about 8 hours for 8-10 year-olds).

“Try waking a teenager in the morning, and the odds are good that you’ll find a cell phone tucked under their pillow–the last thing they touch before falling asleep and the first thing they reach for upon waking.” – Victoria J. Rideout, Ulla G. Foehr and Donald F. Roberts, Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds.

What are the health consequences?
There is already growing concern that this generation of children may be the first in two centuries to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, fueled by the childhood obesity epidemic. Will even more years be trimmed off due to the increase in media use? Television viewing was found to be associated with an increased risk of death in a recent national study of 8,800 adults in Australia (Television viewing time and mortality). Is this M² generation destined to live many less hours; with many more of those precious hours spent staring at screens?

The study focused on what kids are spending their time doing: watching TV, playing video games, sitting at computers. But the key issue pertaining to their health and well-being may very well be what they are NOT doing during those 7+ hours each day that they are engaged with a screen.

They are not having face to face conversations with family members and friends.
They are not climbing, jumping, or running.
They are not fully engaging their senses in our 3-dimensional world.

What do we do now?
Technology is here and it’s here to stay. These numbers will increase: the only questions are how fast and how much. The huge increase in cell phone ownership emphasizes the ‘anywhere, anytime’ aspect of media penetration. Sure, it can mean more texting of LOL and OMG in bedrooms and buses across the country. But it also provides an opportunity to reach and educate youth that otherwise might slip through the cracks.

As I’ve discussed previously with respect to the mHealth Summit, mobile technology offers an exciting platform by which to develop new tools and messaging strategies that don’t require a high level of literacy, and to develop programs to increase literacy and knowledge in a targeted, non-stigmatizing, non-threatening manner. The report Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning (PDF) from The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, illustrates how innovative, strategic thinking will help us redefine teaching and learning by harnessing the power of mobile technologies.

“Because I said so!”
This new KFF report clearly highlights the need for parents to…be parents. The data are crystal clear – rules and guidelines work wonders. In the study, only about one third of the youth reported having rules about how much time they can spend watching TV, playing video games, and using the computer. The report shows that when parents do set limits, children spend less time with media: those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day than those with no rules.

There are numerous resources available to help parents, including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s We Can! Program. Start with a family screen time log, work with your kids to set parameters, set a good example, and press the ‘Off’ button on the TV remote. Teachers may wish to look at Every Waking Minute? Examining Personal Media Habits, from The New York Times blog, The Learning Network.

Exchange screen time for green time.
Kids can’t stare at a screen and their hands aren’t available to text or play video games when they are climbing trees, swinging from monkey bars, building a snowman, splashing in a pool, scaling a rock wall, or digging in a garden. Head outside–whether it’s a backyard or a national park–where there is some combination of sand, rocks, water, mud, and even some odd noises. The hands will start exploring, and soon it will be the senses that are multitasking.

Top Gift Ideas for Outdoor Play From The Blogosphere

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 15:52:51 +0000

'Snow play' courtesy of darkmatter at Flickr

Looking for a great gift idea to foster outdoor play? Odds are high you’ll find it here. Incredible folks from the play blogosphere have been busy in their workshops putting together amazing lists that will make you wish they would draw your name for a Secret Santa gift exchange.

Here is my top ten list of simple gift ideas, followed by a roundup of outstanding suggestions for creative, easy and innovative gifts from others.

An old wooden box, shiny tray or big glass bowl to display and store found treasures.
Seeds to plant a pizza garden (tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano).
A dog from the Humane Society who loves to go outside and play.
A compass, a GPS, a box of trinkets for geocaching, and/or a great set of maps.
Bright colored mittens that form perfect snowballs, galoshes that splash, funny ear muffs, sandals that allow mud to squish through your toes.
Retro toys such as a hula hoop, slip n slide, or saucer sled, and a big red ball.
A donation to a charity that encourages outdoor play for those who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity (see Charity Navigator).
Sun block, a first aid kit, a bike tire patch kit, a flashlight, a water bottle, a Swiss Army knife.
Homemade hot chocolate mix to warm everyone from the inside out after playing in the cold and a big pitcher that screams out for fresh lemonade for the dog days of summer.
A big plush towel and a great smelling bar of soap to clean off the sand, mud, dirt, and muck.

Great gift ideas from folks who ‘play well with others’:

Mara Kaplan at Let Kids Play!! has been featuring 50 Toys in 50 Days. I especially like her list of 10 active outdoor toys for children with and without special needs which features the Hyper Dash and PlasmaCar.

The crew at Active Kids Club.com has put together a list of Top 10 #playoutdoors holiday gifts ideas in response to my challenge via Twitter. They ‘rocked’ with amazing ideas that include a DIY snowman kit and bird watching kit.

Debi at Go Explore Nature includes a bug container and nature journal in her list of 10 Holiday Gift Ideas for Little Nature Explorers.

Michele at Fun Orange County Parks asks in her list, Top Ten Outdoor Presents for Southern California Family and Friends, “…how can you wrap up play days and deliver them to your family or friends? Experiences are what it’s all about when it comes to the following gift ideas.” She lists a wonderful array of memberships, including the America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass ($80).

Bethe at the Grass Stain Guru has written a beautiful letter to Santa. Her wish list includes, “A rainbow in the sky over a glorious rain puddle and good kite-flying weather this spring.” Amen sister!

Ben McKinley at Play Outdoors is Making my (Green) List and Checking it Twice. His list includes the gift of fresh local produce, which is a perfect solution to provide healthy calories to fuel all the play.

Arcady at Playscapes offers a list of Playground Books for Christmas. In addition to the list in the sidebar, there is a stunning visual feast of retro playground books “full of interesting playground contraptions being built by men with mustaches and tested by kids with puffy hair and polyester trousers.”

Creative Play Plus has a wonderful list of DIY Creative Christmas Gifts that include homemade play dough and playsilks that can be dyed with Kool-Aid. How kool is that!

Free Range Kids guru Lenore Skenazy sums it all up in her blog post title, The Greatest Gift Of The Season: A Free-Range Childhood. Nothing could be better for children of all ages.

Warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

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Health 2.0 STAT: Plugged in and Unplugged

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:53:35 +0000

Cyber Ghost courtesy of Foto Pamp on Flickr

Health 2.0 STAT was just that – STAT. A Health 2.0 Meetup organized by David Blackburn of Aquilent and billed as ‘Rapid Fire Presentations from Health 2.0 Leaders,’ seven of us spoke for five minutes each on a range of topics. The health realm we spanned was digital, virtual, plugged in, meta-tagged, and, well, stat.

During the panel discussion, we were asked a zinger of a question by moderator David Hale from the National Library of Medicine. David drew from Clay Shirky’s concept of cognitive surplus. The amount of time Americans collectively spend watching commercials on TV each weekend is 100 million hours – enough time to recreate Wikipedia, as of 2008. And so David asked each of us what we would have every person in the United States do if they had a surplus hour over a weekend.

I proclaimed that everyone should unplug and go outside. Experience all their senses. Be in the present.

Wait a minute. Shouldn’t I have said something about infectious diseases or preventable chronic illnesses or world peace?

Engage your five senses. Touch. Smell. Move. Live in four dimensions rather than the two dimensions of the computer screen. Engage with others in the real world, in the present.

I thought I would be booed and tweckled. But an amazing thing happened. There was applause, and “a collective ‘hooray’ and a couple ‘amens’” (much thanks to Mary Kay Alegre for documenting this).

Is unplugging really a key to good health? Is this really a good way to channel an extra hour of our collective time? Yes.

Keyboard helper courtesy of M.H.ick9s on Flickr

The more we learn about the health impact of online time, the more important it may be to encourage individuals to go offline.

Dr. Aric Sigman, noted psychologist and biologist, cautioned in a recent interview with Online Educa Berlin:

“Social networking appears to be actively displacing the time people spend socially interacting with real (non-virtual) friends and even with people in their own house – members of their own family. Furthermore, this displacement is most noticeable in younger and younger children who are now experiencing less social interaction and have fewer social connections during key stages of their physiological, emotional and social development. At the same time, a large number of medical and physiology studies are finding a strong link between this lack of non-virtual social interaction and connection and biological changes in the immune system and genes, along with higher rates of illness, disease and premature death. So, obviously Facebook does not directly cause these changes but social networking is merely a new distraction away from real face-to-face social interaction and this lack of interaction is the health risk, not the act of social networking. If people only spent a short amount of time each day online, there wouldn’t be any need for this discussion.”

For stunning visual evidence of the impact of screen time, take a stroll through the online photography exhibit, A Disenchanted Playroom.

If you were given an extra hour during your weekend, what would you do with it?

Many thanks to David Blackburn for founding the DC/MD/VA Health 2.0 Meetup group (Twitter: @DCHealth2_0) which has now been recognized as a local chapter of Health 2.0, and to sponsors Aquilent and Palladian Partners.

Fellow panelists and their topics included:

Tim Clarke, Jr., NMHM Deputy Director (Communications) – Web 2.0 at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, a Division of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
Lindsey Hoggle, RD, MS, PMP, Health Project Partners, LLC – Can Health 2.0 Drive Health 2%?
Mark Scrimshire, Senior Web Strategist, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield – HealthCamp: Built on Health 2.0 and Web 2.0
Michael Paley, PhD, Executive Vice President, Aptima – Using Virtual World Technologies for Application in Disaster Preparedness Training
Chris Lindsley, Web Editor, UMMC – University of Maryland Medical Center Adoption of Web 2.0
Ram Singh, CEO, informediq – Using mobile devices to provide better healthcare

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America’s National Parks: 14 Resources for a Most Excellent Adventure

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 02:11:23 +0000

Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park

“The beauty and charm of the wilderness are his for the asking, for the edges of the wilderness lie close beside the beaten roads of the present travel.” Theodore Roosevelt

When I was growing up in Colorado our family would routinely load up the station wagon and head off to a National Park. We explored Glacier, Arches, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Mesa Verde, Dinosaur, Grand Teton and Rocky Mountain National Park (our ‘neighborhood’ park). As a college graduation gift my mom took me to Denali. Several years later friends and I headed off to Volcano National Park for a reunion. This past year we loaded up the car for a multisport visit to Acadia.

Our national parks cover over 80 million acres and offer the perfect blend of inspiration and perspiration. There are 12,250 miles of unpaved trails, 8,500 miles of roads and 26,830 campsites. My parents shared their love of spacious skies and purple mountains majesty and now when I visit national parks I often encounter smells and sounds that bring back fond childhood memories of family outings.

“Life is a great adventure…accept it in such a spirit.” Theodore Roosevelt

In celebration of America’s National Parks: America’s Best Idea, here are 14 great national park resources to help you plan a most excellent outdoor adventure with your family and friends.

National Park Service (NPS) Main Website The perfect place to get acquainted with the parks.
Find a National Park Search by name, location, activity (biking, boating, climbing, swimming) and topic (caves, civil war, fossils, glaciers, volcanoes).
Park Reservations Make reservations for cabins, tents and ranger-guided tours as well as for various permits. Federal and private campsite reservations can also be made via ReserveAmerica.
Fuel Cost Calculator Planning to load up the family car and take a road trip to a National Park? Calculate the estimated fuel cost of your trip, courtesy of AAA.
National Parks Weather Search a national park, state park, or recreation area by name or search by location. Visit a specific national park website or the National Weather Service to get local weather updates and travel advisories (road closures due to blizzards or lava flows).
NPS Interactive Map Center (IMC) Base maps and park brochure maps for geographic reference and navigation to and within parks. Maps are also available from the National Park Service Maps site.
National Parks Geology 3D and photographic tours that feature park geology and natural history from the U.S. Geological Survey.
National Parks Service Jobs Permanent, temporary and seasonal positions.
NPS Volunteer Opportunities Search for positions throughout the National Parks (use ‘National Park’ for the keywords).
Junior Ranger Program Complete a series of activities during a park visit, share answers with a park ranger, and receive an official Junior Ranger badge and certificate. Or become a Web Ranger through the online program for kids of all ages.
‘Share the Experience’ Photo Contest Official federal recreation lands photo contest. For inspiration, view the NPS historic photo collection.
News and Commentary A multimedia blend of news, feature content, debate, and discussion tied to America’s national parks.
Tips for Visiting National Parks Information from the Sierra Club on fees, lodging, gear, activities and avoiding crowds.
National Parks by the Numbers NPS stats, workbooks to estimate the economic impact of NPS visitor spending, and acreage reports. Also see NPS Quick Facts.

“It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.” Theodore Roosevelt

Other Resources

Dad fishing near Rocky Mountain National Park

Theodore Roosevelt quotes from the NPS
National Parks Foundation
On Twitter:
National Parks News @NPCA
U.S. Forest Service @forestservice
National Park Foundation @GoParks

7 simple tips to grow active, playful kids

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 02:28:58 +0000

Kids playing in the Crowne Fountain, Minenium Park, Chicago. Photo courtesy of Kymberly Janisch at Flickr.

Here are seven simple tips (one for every day of the week) to foster happy, healthy kids. A special shout-out to listeners of Radio Disney Philly who caught my interview on the Backyard Show – these are especially for you!

Lead. By example. You are a role model for your kids. If they see you plop on the couch, they will be inclined to recline as well. If they see you dance around the house, play tug-of-war with the dog, and dig about in the garden, they will be inclined to dance, tug and dig.
Think. Outside the box. Give a child an expensive gift and they promptly rip it open and…start playing with the gift paper and box. Skip expensive toys and break out the pans, wooden utensils, brooms, and pails. It’s often said the best toys are 10% creation and 90% imagination.
Watch & Listen. What do your children enjoy doing? What activities do they talk about doing? (Ask them.) Encourage those activities and build on them.
Share. What are your favorite childhood memories of play? Share them with your family and then break out the Slip ‘n Slide or hula-hoop, or break out the chalk for a game of hopscotch (great for balance for kids and adults).
Sculpt. By providing your children with opportunities to move and create, you are sculpting their brains. Play fosters new neural connections and prunes existing ones. As kids sculpt play-doh and sand castles, they sculpt their futures.
Meet. Safety is one of the major reasons parents are hesitant to let their children play outside. Organize a play-date that really is about play.
Create. Opportunities. Don’t over-schedule your children or yourself. Leave open little windows of time – even if only for ten minutes – just to goof off and move around. Any activity is much, much better than nothing.

Resources especially for parents
These are just a few of the numerous available resources (several of these are also on the 100+ Top Play Resources list). Feel free to add more of your favorites below.

Related posts on play:

Michael O’Shea, Parade Fitness Editor, on Play

Carol Torgan, Ph.D. — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:03:54 +0000

‘Basketball’ courtesy of Hakan Dahlstrom on Flickr

“For years when I got in an exercise rut and got bored or tired of my workouts I would always take time off from my normal workouts and play basketball. I would get a ball and go shoot like when I was a kid. I would find myself playing, sweating, and not counting the minutes.”

Those are the words of Michael O’Shea, Ph.D., Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM). Mike is Fitness Editor for Parade Magazine, and author of the magazine’s extremely popular Get Fit Now column.

Mike is a tireless advocate for physical activity for individuals of all ages and stages, and he recently interviewed me about the importance of play. We had a great chat and he shared his memories of play, as well as his current play activities.

“I play with my two youngest, ages five and seven. We go to the pool, go on long walks, climb trees, and go to the playground. My 5-year-old daughter and I take her rabbit for walks. She even has a leash for her rabbit, and my job is to look out for big dogs that might hurt LuLu.”

In his column on play, Make Fitness Fun, Mike reminds us, “Don’t let kids have all the fun this summer. Getting in shape doesn’t always have to feel like work. If you’re doing something you enjoy, you’ll feel more energized and engaged.” Great words from someone who leads by example.

To get ideas on play programs, activities, events, and resources, see 100+ Top Play Resources.