Christmas Present Ideas for Kids to keep them Fit for the Future

In order to keep healthy every child should get 60 mins of moderate exercise per day (Source: Chartered Society of Physiotherapy) This doesn't have to be as part of a sports session, and it isn't necessary for the exercise to be in one chunk in the day. Exercise is just as effective if done as part of normal activity in smaller bursts of time. Here are 7 Christmas present ideas for kids which introduce some activity into their day and keep them fit for the future, but leave them feeling they were simply having fun.

Firstly the old favourites, but still as much fun today:

1. A kite, even the most basic of kites will fill hours with fun and get kids moving, but we love Air Piggles, the flying pig Piggles flies as a normal kite for as long as the child wishes, then to return to earth slacken the line and Piggles floats down on his parachute, the kids run around catching him purely having fun, without even realising they are getting plenty of exercise.

2. A skipping rope; of course any old piece of rope will do, but how about this  Chinese Jump Rope which comes with the elastic, but also a book with the rhymes and moves (I'm sure this was French Skipping in my day?)

3. I'm sure as a child we could Swing for hours without stopping, try it now and you realise quite how much the stomach muscles are working

4. Trampoline another one where they will be having lots of fun without even realising that they are exercising. Do make sure that you get a trampoline with a surround to minimise the risk of injury.

If the day is too cold or wet to get outside, or you simply can't drag your child away from a screen then there are plenty of items of technology that will add a bit of movement into the child's play.

5. Many physio departments are now incorporating Wii Fit into rehab programmes, and once you have a wii fit what teenager wouldn't enjoy the range of games on offer including Snowboarding , or Dance

Realistically one of the best ways to get the kids moving is to do something together as a whole family. Why not think about starting a new sport or activity together in the New Year:

7.Geocaching involves finding a box of treasure hidden at set coordinates. Its free and exists in most countries around the world. To take part you will need to register at geocaching.com, you'll need a few bits of treasure to swap at the boxes (things like pencils or cheap toys) and you will need a GPS