5 Family Activities For Fun And Good Health

Fun is a better motivator toward health than future outcomes in terms of physicality or mental clarity. What ten-year-old cares about how healthy they’ll be in thirty years? They care about movies, video games, frogs, bicycles, cotton candy, carnivals, roller coasters, and the whimsy of youth.

So play into that: find things your family enjoys doing, which are additionally healthy. Following we’ll briefly explore five family activities that can be a lot of fun for everybody in the family while simultaneously keeping everyone healthy.

1. Snorkeling, Scuba Diving, And Water Sports in General

It’s hard for any child to not have fun in a swimming pool, and they get great exercise. Surfing, visiting the ocean, swimming in a lake—these things are also a lot of fun, and excellent opportunities for exercise. A snorkel and a mask is around twenty dollars. You can also get fins that are pretty affordable.

For older children on the verge of adolescence, scuba diving can be an option. The math is a bit complicated, and they’ll have to take a weekend class around $300 before going with a group to get their PADI certification; but after that, you can scuba dive as a family. This may be for the more adventurous groups, but it’s a lot of fun, it’s exciting, and there’s plenty of exercise involved.

2. Dance: Traditional And Modern

Dance isn’t just for ballerinas and pop stars. It can be a fun family activity, and there are plenty of family groups who love nothing more than putting on good music and dancing the night away.

Also, there are more traditional dances that can be learned as a group and may even have some cultural significance. If you’ve got several artistically-motivated young ladies in your family, ballet as a group could actually be a fun, entertaining family activity—just get the right ballet shoes.

3. Paintball, AirSoft, And Nerf

On the other hand, if you’ve got rambunctious boys, you might have fun with tactical sports. This starts with Nerf guns, which are relatively safe; though you’ll find little foam balls and darts all over the house. Airsoft guns fire spring-loaded pellets that can leave a welt. These are more dangerous, but there’s fun to be had.

At the top of the tactical sports “pyramid” is paintball. Now paintball requires masks, and you probably shouldn’t do this as a family with children that haven’t gone through adolescence yet, but different families have different conventions. At any rate, paintball is a lot of fun, though it can be painful when you get hit! It’s certainly adventurous and requires exercise.

4. Hiking

Hiking is relatively safe, depending on where you are, and allows the family to exercise more at the pace of individuals in the group. Young ones who aren’t good at group activities can tag along and enjoy nature, exploring the woods or the trail when you reach your destination or stop for a rest. A five-mile hike two ways twice a week is a good workout.

5. Biking

Perhaps one of the funnest physical exercises you can do as a family is bicycling. You can do it in virtually any town throughout the majority of the year. There are always parks and trails to explore. Granted, a wreck on a bike can be painful, and they will happen. This helps children learn resilience, balance, and situational awareness.

A few bike trips may end in scratches, scrapes, or bumps and bruises. Wait until young ones are at least eight or nine—again, this depends on your family’s circumstances, but generally, when they’re around this age, they’ll be able to keep up, you can keep them safe, and they’ll have the courage to get back on the seat after a wreck.

Keeping Your Family Fit And Entertained

Entertainment is a better motivator than future benefits in terms of regular exercise. Teach your children to have fun with physical exertion, and they’ll stay fit effortlessly. Biking, hiking, dance, water sports, and tactical sports can all be extremely fun activities you and your family can do together.