10 tips to stay active during the school holidays. I know what it’s like when the school holidays come around my schedule gets thrown sideways. It’s just that much harder to get me time. I know that as a mom, I really need that time to connect with my body, and stay feeling strong. And so I want to give you guys tips, and so I’ve learned a few things about school holidays, and staying connected to my routine, and my body. And I want to share these things with you.

Tip 1 Get up earlier than they do!

I know this is hard, but I find that when I’m up earlier than my kids. I’m able to get a little bit of quiet time. This isn’t often exercise time, often it’s meditation time. It’s a moment to breathe, and connect with my body, and find my equilibrium, before I have to help somebody else find theirs.

Tip 2 Morning dance parties!

When they get up start cranking the tunes. Everyone can have a boogie as they get breakfast into them and then the day is looking good no matter what the weather. What I love about this tip is there is no explaining or bargaining to be done, let the music do the talking for you.

Tip 3 Play running games with the kids

Not everybody is up for running, but you can make this fun. A game of tag can be a bit more interesting when you’ve got a tea towel, tucked into the back of your pants and you’ve got to chase the other person’s tail, so a little bit less running involved it’s a bit more pivoting, and everybody gets a good workout. And there’s a lot of giggles, at the same time.

Tip 4 Bum walking races

I love a good bum walk, you can check out this video. Kids love a good bum walk race or some littler ones will prefer to bum shuffle, you pick a point on the floor and you race each other this is a great all out workout. It’s going to help your lower abs really connect with your core, help your obliques, and some of your hip function.

Tip 5 Movement flow jar

Get a little pack of activity cards that have different yoga poses or Pilates poses on them, put them in a jar and play a game where you pick them out, and this can be the flow of your little movement session. You can set a timer for five minutes, and pick out five little poses from the jar, and do a little yoga session together. What is really great about this is that the kids can be the teacher, and they can teach you the movement flow that they pull out of the jar.

Tip 6 Get a good chase toy

Find a fun running chasing toy for the holidays so it might be a new frisbee or Boomerang, or just a really great ball. These toys are just so fun to take to a big wide open space and experiment with and get everybody moving.

Tip 7 Play ‘tickle monster’

Depending on how old your kids are the old tickle monster game is a very great way to get the blood moving and get the good endorphins flowing. So this involves being a tickle monster and tickling the little ones, and then in return they become the tickle monster and come and tickle you. I think the rest is self explanatory.

Tip 8 Beach stick drawing

When walking on the beach with my young kids I always found it really a bit hard to get them to walk on the beach. My little boy loves to just stay in one spot and make sandcastles. So to get him walking, I would get big stick and draw a line in the ground and he would have to follow the line. Sometimes I would put little dashes and he’d have to jump from dash to dash, zigzags, spirals etc. so it gets really crazy and of course they love to take the stick and draw the line for you. For me it’s a great way to get up the beach and get moving.

Tip 9 Rolling, rolling, rolling

Stay active in the school holidays and get a good little activity mat and do some forward rolls, teach the kids how to do a forward roll. You can do what they call pencil rolls where you’re rolling on your side. Also, that’s also really great to do on a grassy hill. And you can come into some really simple circus balances, where you. Check out these amazing tutorials for fun at home from Circus Kids Australia.

Tip 10 Circus toys

Pick up some hula hoops and juggling balls from the cheap shop and have a hula hoop competition. Hula hooping is great exercise, and really fun for everyone. Hot Tip, the bigger the hula hoop the easier it is to get it swinging around your hips.

I hope that these 10 tips have given you an idea of how to stay dynamic and active in the school holidays, share that with the kids, and keep your own peace of mind.

I am Brigid Pearse a certified Pilates instructor, an ex-dancer and a mum. I run a fully equipped Pilates studio from my home in Lennox Head and I run community Pilates mat classes in Byron Bay, Ballina and online. To receive regular body wisdom sign up below.