Toys Which Can Keep You Moving As A Family #AD

**Advertorial feature in conjunction with Wicked Uncle**

I am not a gym person, it’s not that I don’t like exercise but being stuck in a room doing it is too boring for me. I used to have a personal trainer who would come to my house once a week, it was the motivation I needed at the time and better than classes as we went at a pace I was able to stick to. Now I have children this isn’t something I have kept up with due to costs, time and lack of energy amongst other things.

Due to working from home, I find I am sitting down far too much and to combat this I use my desk bike while typing as much as I can, I walk the children to school and back and use the car as little as possible. I try to hit my step target of 10,000 steps at least 5 days a week and have taken to having a walk around town just to keep myself active.

I am keen for the children to be as active as possible too, they attend Cubs and Scouts and do a couple of after-school clubs, but they do spend far too much time on devices or watching TV, so we are always looking to discover fun ways we could get moving more as a family.

Exercise can be boring if you are doing it alone, however, with the idea of moving more as a family it doesn’t have to be boring.

Here are some of the fun ways you can work together as a family to keep moving including some fun toys from Wicked Uncle to add to the outdoors fun.

Bike riding
This is a great exercise for the whole family. We have fields by our house which we can ride on or we can head into town, we are also very lucky that the local football club have a great flat car park which is just by our house, on none match days when the gates are closed we head to the car park to ride safely knowing that no cars will come around the corner. The kids love riding in the car park, it is flat, safe and they can go over the speed bumps and slalom around the posts as much as they want to.
Add to the fun with a Mini Hornet which attaches to the bike handlebars, it is loaded with 25 fun sounds including a Police siren, motorbike, Ole trumpet, horse, elephant and an impressive lion’s roar – there’s even an old-fashioned bike bell! The sounds have three different volumes, plus it has white and green lights, with flashing or constant settings.

All weather walks
This is something we do as a family already, we’ve always said there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.
Sometimes there is nothing more fun than pulling on your wellies, zipping up your raincoat and grabbing an umbrella to head out and puddle jump while singing in the rain. We also like to head off to the park where we can burn off energy on kids swing sets, slides, and roundabouts and play games of chase and hide-n-seek.
We also love to head out into our back garden where we bounce on the trampoline, play swingball or just run around. Children’s swing sets also adorn the garden and we often change up the seats on them, adding ladders or different types of seats.
Now that Winter is approaching the nights are getting darker earlier – by wearing a head torch you can stay outside for longer – check out this fun dinosaur head torch which the kids will love.

Rollerskating
Both the children love to rollerskate and are both rather good at it now. It’s not something I have embraced just yet but we have discovered a Roller Disco on every Saturday night locally so I think I will need to get in some practice as I think I will need to join them for it. They could be the ones holding my hands and holding me up though. Considering I will need to practice to keep up with the children, it may be wise I invested in my own skates so as not to embarrass myself (or them).
Bug Hunting
You can head outside and get back to nature. Exploring the outdoors can be great fun – you can take a long walk into the forest, lift logs and rocks to find bugs. Pop them into a bug-finding kit, take them home to explore them, draw them and find our more about them – of course release them after you have finished.
Kicking a ball around
Neither of my children really likes football but they do love chasing the ball around the football fields and trying to score goals. They aren’t very good but it is great fun and gets us all moving and gives us a good laugh when we fall down, save a goal or even launch ourselves in the wrong direction.

Going head to head
One activity the kid’s love is being competitive with each other, giving them a pedometer each or even a Fitbit is one way to keep up their competitive natures (and to wear them out of course), if Emmy has outstepped Harry he will run up and down the stairs in a bid to catch up, and vice vera.