Being active as a family

Building activity into daily life

Usually the biggest hurdle to family activity is finding time, but you don’t need to do everything all the time. Just try and fit a few activities into daily life in a balanced way:

• Walk or ride a bike with your child to the local shops or to and from school
• Encourage children to help with household chores such as walking the dog, washing the car or mowing the lawn
• Go for a family walk after dinner
• Keep a football, frisbee, jump rope or bat and ball in your car at all times.

Being organised

Some activities take more organisation. While this requires effort at the start, it can produce good results that really last:

• Plan ahead and schedule a regular time for physical activity that fits in with the whole family
• Take part in either organised sport or activities in the park – make it a feature of your weekend, e.g. football, bike rides, kite-flying
• Plan family holidays with a view to being active, e.g. somewhere near the beach or where there are good walks to do. Remember to take bikes, tennis rackets, balls and other equipment.

Holiday ideas
NSW Dept of Sport and Recreation website about kids’ camps, family getaways and day activities for children. See ‘useful links’ for similar websites in each State and Territory.

Keeping up the activity

It’s easy to get carried away with enthusiasm for family activity, then let it slip as time goes by. To avoid this happening:

• Choose activities the whole family will enjoy. Make a list of ideas from each family member and choose a few activities from the list
• Vary the activities to prevent boredom
• Don’t overspend – work out how much you can afford and choose activities based on that
• Choose convenient locations – if you need to travel for an activity (swimming pool, park) try to make it close to home
• Set goals so that your family’s progress can be tracked, then set new goals to keep interest up.