All the experts are saying it: Get kids moving! Make fitness fun! OK … but how? Here are a few ideas, from KinderCare Learning Centers’ Active Adventures enrichment program.

¢ Go on a tour of your home with your child. While in each room, practice walking in place like an animal while saying a well-known rhyme; then move to a different room and repeat the activity, this time walking in place like a different animal. Playing a physically active game like this for as little as 15 minutes a day can significantly improve heart function in your growing child.

¢ Build an obstacle course in the yard or at the park using outdoor play items. Encourage your child walk through the course first, then try skipping, jumping and running.

¢ Provide opportunities for your child to move creatively with other children and family members. This may take the form of playing charades together, tumbling on the lawn, dancing to music, or just using your faces to express how you feel.

¢ Encourage your child to participate in ball-handling activities such as kickball, soccer, bowling with water bottles, tossing a ball into a laundry basket or box, throwing a ball through a hoola hoop, or bouncing a ball off a bare wall.

¢ Play simple games of catch with your child. As a general rule, use large, lightweight balls with younger children, and smaller balls with older children, depending upon their skill levels.

¢ Have your child practice tossing a ball into the air and catching it with two hands. See how many times he or she can catch it before it hits the ground.

¢ Gather a few friends and have them hold the edges of a small, lightweight blanket. Bounce a lightweight ball on top of the blanket, trying not to let it fall to the ground.