I love the changing of seasons. Summer is my favorite season, but I always welcome the cooler crisp weather that fall brings after summer’s heat. For many, fall means warm apple crisp, pumpkin spice lattes, and fall sports. Fall usually means back to school and back to sports for our kids. But it’s 2020 and this year is just different. We have found ways to adapt to the new circumstances that this year has forced on us. Now fall sports have fallen victim to the latest round of closures. While professional sports have been allowed to carry on with their season, most kids and school sports have been put off until spring. While we are waiting and adapting to these new circumstances, here are a few ways to keep your kids active this fall without fall sports.
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Get Outdoors
Fall is a great time of year to enjoy time outdoors, without the sweltering heat of summer. Even if you are not an “outdoorsy” person, you can easily implement outdoor activities to keep your kids active when they can’t play organized sports. You can venture out to the woods for some hiking and nature study, or just find a local park trail to hike. Bike rides are also a fun way to stay active in the outdoors. You can ride around your neighborhood or find a bike trail and make it more of an adventure.
Running
My favorite outdoor activity is running and fall is my favorite season for running. The weather is perfect in the fall, not too hot or cold. I usually run by myself but my kids enjoy going with me on occasion. Running is excellent exercise and a great way to teach our kids to set goals, and then make slow and steady progress toward those goals. The best part is running can be done with no equipment, just a pair of shoes. If you are not a runner yourself, then I would encourage you to try it out with your kids. You don’t have to be fast and you don’t have to be good at it for it to still be a good and healthy pursuit for the whole family.
Get a Trampoline
My husband and I surprised the boys for Christmas a few years ago with an outdoor trampoline. We still feel like this was the best gift we’ve ever given them. It is great exercise and gets used nearly every day, even three years later. When they need a brain break during the school day, they usually go take a bounce on the trampoline for a few minutes. If you don’t have room in your yard, a small indoor trampoline will suffice, I just wouldn’t attempt any back flips on one.
Swimming
We are thankful that our local indoor pools are now open. Swimming is one of our favorite ways to stay active during the fall and winter months. Not only is it great physical exercise, but the bilateral coordination used for swimming is actually great exercise for the brain. I don’t know about you, but I am all about activities that will help my kids with things like math and spelling without actually doing math and spelling. If you have access to a pool, I highly recommend this as a great way to stay active during the fall (and winter) months.
At Home Workouts
For those days when you just can’t get outside, there are many free workouts online. Many require little to no equipment and you can find any type of workout you want your kids to do. A quick Google or Pinterest search will give you more workouts than you could possibly do this fall. Doing a little bit of strength training and conditioning will also help your kids get ready for when their sport eventually resume.
These are just a few of my ideas to keep our kids active this season without fall sports. I would love to hear some of your ideas too! Feel free to drop me a comment below or connect with me on social media!
I wish I had a pool close by that I could swim in regularly. would be so excellent.