Today on my podcast, I’m going to talk to you about some end of the year announcements to try and keep your kids active throughout the summer until they come back to you in the fall.
Keeping Students Active
So summer’s here and your students are at home and you’re trying to figure out ways to keep them active and engaged. Now that you’ve built them up all school year long working on fitness, working on improving cardiovascular strength and endurance and you’re trying to figure out ways to kind of keep them active over the summer.
Share Local Events
Something I think would be a great idea to try and it’s, again, this is a try. You can’t guarantee your kids are going to do it, but find a bunch of local events that are going on near you. Maybe you find a 5K here or a memorial walk or there’s a a junior or a mini triathlon at the kids can try – introduce them to it, you know, that last couple of days of school where things are kind of winding down. You maybe have the flyers available or maybe you take the initiative to create your own flyer that lists all the activities that are available to them, you know, within your town or maybe the local towns near you that they can easily access. It’s a great way for your students to see that you care. It’s a great way for your students to see what’s available for them to do during the summer to maintain that fitness level that we’ve been working so hard throughout the school year to maintain and to build up and it’s just one of those things where if they can get into groups, um, maybe they can work out together and then train and then they can go to these events and try it.
Create a Summer Resource for Students
As a teacher, maybe you create a blog, maybe you create a website where you have, you know, your school’s fitness, summer workouts, and you can just post a video or a, a clip or even a written blurb about what workout is they can do for this day or for the week. You know, maybe it’s as simple as it’s a two mile walk with your mom and your dad or it’s a get together with your group of friends and you go and do a Fartlek training workout. Something that they can, they can wrap their head around that they can go out, they can do, and it’s fun. It’s active. Anything, something is better than nothing, I guess is the way you gotta look at it.
Share Summer League/Camp Options
Something else that you could consider is if your a local town, has a summer swim team. My two children love summer swim team. It’s five days a week. They’re in the pool swimming for an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. They have a swim meet at nights or on the weekends. They’re around a bunch of their friends. They’re extremely active, burning up calories, working out, smiling all the time because they love the water. Some other things that might be around, or maybe you could host, even maybe you get a group of kids together and you say, hey, this is an activity that I think would be great to do in the summer and we’re going to do a mini Triathlon or a mini Duathalon, something like that where you can get your kids in and you can get them active. Maybe you involve their parents. Maybe it’s a relay, you know, it’s a family relay.
Um, it’s just a fitness relief with your family and they come out and they can bike, they can walk, they can jog something or anything. Again, it’s one of those things that we’re trying to maintain some fitness throughout the summer. Make it active, make it fun. Get the kids moving, make them smile. Making sure that they know you care. That’s the best thing that we can do. Some schools have biking trails and walking trails. Post a map, you know, put it out there. Let the family and the community, you know, hey, we have this awesome trail that you’re welcome to walk on. It’s free. All we ask is that you maintain it and you take good care of it. If you see any trash, maybe you can pick it up and help out. Just again, something to keep the kids active. It’s an end of the year announcement system that you put out there. Everything that you know about. Um, it takes a little bit of time on your part, but in the long run, you’re again, you’re doing our job. We’re out there trying to promote fitness, promote activity, and get these kids active.
Good luck. Have a great summer and enjoy!
View more blogs by Jason Gemberling at blog.gophersport.com/author/jason-gemberling/
