How to Make Running Fun for Your Out-of-School Kids

With the kids out of school and all sports and organized activities canceled, you may be looking for healthy ways for your children to get their energy out. We spoke with elementary PE teacher and co-active coach Laurel Green to get the lowdown on how we can best share our love of running with our kids.

As adults, we understand the concept of "Type 2 Fun" and often get a great sense of accomplishment from pushing our bodies through something that actually feels sort of miserable sometimes. Laurel stresses that while this sort of perseverance is a fantastic skill to develop later in life, it should never be the focus with your children.

"It always, always needs to stay fun," she shares. "You want to teach your child to love movement, and that always starts with finding the joy in it."

Additionally, you should never use running as a punishment. Laurel cites several examples of students who, even at very young ages, have already learned to hate running because it's been used as a punishment in their lives. Instead, treat running as a fun and exciting reward, and your kids will learn to enjoy it as much as you do.

When most of us go out for a run, we do just that: we go out, and we run. With your kids, however, you'll have better luck and more enjoyment if you find ways to turn running into a fun activity.

• Relay activities are always fun and can be adapted to make all kinds of different games.
• It doesn't always have to be running. Skipping, knee-highs, butt-kicks, or even walking as fast as possible while balancing something on your head are fun ways to mix it up.
• Short distances for the win. Turn off your endurance-focused runner brain and focus more on short, fast efforts with breaks in between. Similar to HIIT, this sort of running will be more fun and more physically beneficial for your developing children.
• If you are quarantined, use whatever space you have. A back yard, an apartment complex parking lot, or even a living room with the furniture pushed out of the way can work. Set clear boundaries for your kids and model appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
• There are tons of specific activity ideas online, including a few you can find here.

If you are still able to go outside to run in your area, your child may express interest in joining you. This is a great idea, but know that this will not be a "normal" run for you. Keep it short, and integrate spurts of running with walking breaks. Let your child guide the duration and intensity of the adventure, and be sure not to stray too far from home.

Laurel suggests that whatever activity you create, you should always start with it being untimed. If your kids are expressing interest in competition, now is the time you can bring out the stopwatch. Place the focus on personal improvement (now is not the time to encourage a sibling rivalry!). Keep in mind that in many ways, our kids are culturally ingrained with the idea that "losing is bad", so you will want to place a big emphasis on positivity.

There are plenty of options for online stopwatches or stopwatch apps, and these can be fun to load onto an iPad or phone so that the screen is large enough that kids can see it while they're running relays or a short course you've set up (think finish line timer).

When we asked Laurel what parents should keep in mind about the developmental stages of their children, she emphasized, "What's developmentally appropriate is what your child wants to do physically."

In other words, don't push it too hard. If you're interested in seeing the exact physical stages of development for your child's age, you can look up your state's PE Standards (California's are here). This can give you some good ideas for activities but it isn't completely necessary. "Really, you just don't want to cause premature discouragement," Laurel shares. "You want to set your kids up for success!"

If you have multiple kids who span a broad age range, start by catering shared activities to the youngest, then add in ways for the older children to make things more complex or interesting. (Oftentimes the kids will come up with their own ideas!)

Remember that any time your kids are active is an opportunity to teach them about good nutrition. Laurel warns that even children in 4th and 5th grade have often already internalized ideas connecting body image to food. "Use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about fueling your body before and after exercise." Be careful not to impart ideas about how exercise allows you to "earn" certain foods or that exercise is necessary to burn off something they ate.