Back to School Time

Welcome back! Does it feel like summer has flown by? It sure does to me! What did you do all summer? We spent a lot of time getting out and enjoying the nice weather - going for walks with the dog, swimming and fishing and endless amounts of bike riding. And on days when the weather wasn’t so cooperative, it was nice to get out the “Just Dance” games and stay active! Of course, there was a lot of trips to the library for lots and lots of reading material or the special summer programs they have. Whether its seeing “exotic” animals, having a tea party or learning about “Transformers,” the summer library programs are lots of fun for kids and a time to get them out of the house. We even made several trips to local museums to learn a bit of history and since my daughter wrote a school report on wetlands, she even made a few wetlands trips so she could take pictures. While on vacation, my oldest and I got to make a trip to the Titanic Museum, a giant interactive museum that contained artifacts from the ship and information about building the ship, the people aboard the ship and even about icebergs. While it might be a bit depressing, it IS history, and my oldest was enthralled by it and has since tracked down practically every book in her reading level about the Titanic, both fiction and nonfiction. It was a summer of keeping both the mind and the body active, though I admit we had plenty of “lazy” days too. Now that we are back in our school year routine, there will still be time for fun family activities, and we will keep fishing, biking and walking until the weather gets bad. We can still “Just Dance” in the winter, after all. Yes, there will be homework and school projects to do, but we’ll still be reading books for fun and pleasure and hopefully a library program or two to attend. After all, we try to keep our minds and bodies active all year, but still find time to relax and unwind too. I was reading an article on livescience.com that said many school districts are cutting down recess to a short time just once a day and some have eliminated recess entirely. The experts interviewed in the article said kids who aren’t active tend to struggle with self-control and learning and can have long-lasting effects into adulthood. A doctor interviewed said she saw many kids in her practice that got very little physical playtime because of long school days and after-school programs, and cited how important sixty minutes of physical activity a day is to help prevent childhood obesity. For more on the article, check out: http://www.livescience.com/15555-schools-cut-recess-learning-suffers.html. So as school starts and you get back into your routine, why not add physical activity as part of it? Get outside and enjoy the nice weather while you can. Take a family bike ride or walk. Get out of the house and away from the computers/TV/videogames and get active for your and your kids health!