Winter School Holiday Tips to Keep Kids Active

We all know exercise and being active over the colder months can be difficult. After all there's nothing better than curling up on the couch with a warm hot chocolate. Over the school holidays when sports and activities take a break, staying active can be particularly tricky. We've surveyed the TSIC team and come up with some practical ways to keep you and the kids moving these holidays.

Head to your local oval. No matter what your child's favourite winter sport is, you can usually find a sport or school oval, court or field that is available over the holidays. Meet up with other families to play a group game, practice skills and drills, or create one-on-one versions if numbers are limited

Make it fun and take the opportunity to reinforce the fun side of sport, taking the focus off competition. Some local clubs run school holiday programs and camps for skill development. This makes it an easy way for the kids to keep active and involved with the sport they love over the break. Investigate these programs ahead of time, as spaces are usually limited and fill up quick.

Create an adventure. Rug up, put the gumboots on and get outside to explore. Go down to the local playground (or find one in a different suburb for a change), explore what the beach looks like in the colder weather. Collect shells, autumn leaves or organise a treasure hunt. If the rain sets in, younger children will take delight in running around outside in gumboots. See how many puddles you can find (and possibly jump in). If it's windy enough, you could even head down to the park to fly a kite.

Get active indoors. If it's really cold, wet and awful outside, you can create an indoor version of your favourite game. Just make sure there is plenty of space and remove the breakables first! For indoor soccer, make a ball out of rolled up socks. For hockey, use two chairs as the goals, a rolled up newspaper for hockey sticks and stuff the foot of a stocking with newspaper for the ball. Get out the couch cushions and set up a gymnastics pit or set up the table tennis table in the garage.

Just because it's cold and wet doesn't mean you can't stay active. These activities are mostly free and are going to help to keep your kids active, despite the colder weather. If all else fails, check out your local paper or council website for ideas in the local community over the holidays -they usually have quite a few different things going on that are perfect for the whole family.