How to Make Exercise Fun for Kids

Design a time trial course in your backyard or local park, and let your kids set their prescribed reps. Practice the same course – whether it's back and forth to a tree across the yard, or a lap around the house – and invite activity while also letting them celebrate improvements in their own personal record.

Whether you've mapped an ambitious distance across varied terrain or want an easy walk down to the valley in the park, hiking and walking is a simple exercise. Make it more fun for kids by turning it into a nature scavenger hunt or a lesson in birdwatching and insect identification.

Kids of all ages agree: if you must do gym class on the iPad, it's always more fun in a tent. Next time you're looking to get your kids active, suggest putting up the camping tent or building a living room fort in which they can do their workout. If they need a relaxing form of exercise, let them pick out a yoga video online, and lay the yoga mat down right in the backyard.

Offer your children bicycles early in life; if you can do it every day for a few minutes, they'll pick up the know-how really fast. After practicing with only strider bikes (no training wheels to rely on), both of my kids started riding 12-inch two-wheelers in preschool. Athleticism and motor skills do play a part in this, but I also like to think that their low center of gravity and fearlessness contribute to their success. Once they conquer the ability to ride a bicycle independently, it's easy to include physical fitness in an everyday routine. Start with rides in your own driveway, around empty parking lots, and eventually, when their balance and ability to ride in a straight line is reliable, up and down neighborhood sidewalks so they can begin to learn safety protocols for being around pedestrians and driveways.