Remember all those Friday and Saturday nights spent roller skating around and around the rink, singing along with Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer, enjoying time with your friends and “dancing” the hokey pokey? If you do, then you know how much fun roller skating, or even roller blading can be… and what a tremendous opportunity it presents for a couples activity!

Some of my favorite memories of of my husband and I skating during couple sessions at roller rinks when we were kids. Getting to hold his hand was such a big thrill at the time. We also used to roller blade at a local skate park until the wee hours of morning. There was a a long, dark tunnel that we used to stop in to sneak a kiss. Good times!

People of all ages, from eight to eighty, love skating. The joy of rolling around a rink, or down a boardwalk, letting the breeze blow through your hair, spinning a circle or two… it’s no wonder skating is still as popular today as it ever was.

While skating does require some skill, it’s easily learned and is a great calorie burning exercise. With the only equipment needed being a pair of skates and some protective gear, skating is a great workout for couples who want to add more fitness into their lives AND spend time together.

If you’ve never skated before, you might want to take a few lessons from an instructor, friend or family member who can skate well. A roller skating instructor will help you learn more quickly and probably save you a few bumps and bruises you’ll pick up doing it on your own, but they do cost money. Check your local roller skating rink to see if they offer classes.

Investing in good skates and protective gear will be worth the cost if you plan to skate often. You’ll appreciate the protective gear even more when you take that first fall and avoid expensive orthopedic bills to put a cast on your wrist or arm.

Beginning skaters, especially, will want to maintain a positive attitude when learning to skate. It does take some patience, and some trial and error, so do your best to encourage newbies that they will become more comfortable if they give it time and keep trying. The fun factor alone will be worth the time spent.

Learning to relax will take you a long way in learning to skate better. The tendency is to tense up and lock your knees, but that will make you more susceptible to falling. Once you begin to move more freely and with more confidence, you’ll develop your skating skills more quickly.

The first thing you’ll want to learn is how to stop and how to turn on skates. If you’re skating in a roller rink, it’s best if you go during off hours when there are fewer people skating. This will give you more space, and remove some of the human obstacles! If you’re skating outdoors, choose a more remote location, or again, go during less busy times.

Remember that everyone had to learn to skate before they could spin around, go backwards, or dance on skates. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you can’t do it properly at first. Just take your time, and enjoy the process. Soon, you’ll develop a roller boogie romance of your own when you are surrounded by the laughter of your partner having fun and getting fit! And when you get home pop in the movie Whip It and just enjoy each other.

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I am sure most parents have heard this many times over the summer months. Of course we love the extra time we have to spend with our kids when school is out but sometimes they can make you want to pull your hair out, right? In the winter, it’s too cold to go outside and play. In the summer, it’s too hot. What’s a mom to do when she wants to encourage that outside play time and sunshine that every healthy kid needs? Actually, you can encourage your kids to get outside and enjoy the summer by making it a fun family event.

The joy of summer fitness activities is that you really don’t need a lot of equipment, planning, or preparation. You can always go for a long walk on the beach, a hike in the woods, or a few laps around the block. You can keep it really simple and it is still loads of fun.

Take a swim and cool off. If you don’t have a pool in your backyard, take a trip to the lake or beach if there’s one nearby. Or drop by a community pool. While it’s not as private as your own home, you can have a lot of fun and still get in some good exercise swimming laps, racing the kids from end to end or side to side.

Other water exercises are great for summer. You can stay cool while getting in some family fitness time. Consider water skiing and build up those leg muscles, water volleyball, or underwater scavenging contests where everyone takes turns swimming to the bottom of the pool to find a “lost” object. When I was young my mom used to sink hula hoops in the pool with a rope and a sleeping bag full of rocks. I would swim through the hoops for hours!

Dust off the bicycles and take a long ride around town, or strap a picnic lunch on the back and head over to the park for an afternoon playing on the swings and merry-go-round. Don’t forget the monkey bars, which are great for building the muscles in your arms and developing strength, or the slide which is just plain fun!

Dig out that hula hoop again and teach the kids to use it. Remember how much fun you had swinging and swaying to keep that thing from hitting the floor? That’s a tremendous way to exercise your whole body! And the kids will love it, too. They’ll not only have a blast laughing at your antics, but of course, they’ll want to prove they can do it better so the whole family will get a great workout. Many adults like to hula hoop on their own too… it is really catching on again and you can even take classes with your kids.

Frisbee is a fun way to spend an afternoon as well. If the kids aren’t home, or aren’t interested, get the dog involved. They love chasing the disc, and many of them are better than humans at catching it.

Like to skate? In-line skating is good exercise for everyone in the family. Skates are relatively inexpensive, you can even find them at yard sales at times, and some communities offer rentals places, so check around. If your town has a bike trail or greenbelt, chances are you can find other skaters enjoying the ride and getting some good exercise in the process. If it really is too hot outside you can take them to your local roller rink.

Whatever you like to do, summer is a great time to be outdoors, playing with the kids, and having fun—all in the name of family fitness! Sure, you’ll sweat, but why pay a gym for that privilege when you can sweat for free in your own backyard or neighborhood?

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Getting your child interested in nature now can foster a life-long love of nature. Perhaps your child will grow up to invent innovative ways to preserve the environment he or she has come to love. Participation is key – the more your child can feel, hear, see, touch and taste nature, the closer he or she will feel to it. Here are some tips for fostering your child’s interest.

1. Start a collection of rocks, feathers, plants (where appropriate), or other freebies from nature. Check out or purchase books about the subject of your collection. Learn to identify the various plants, rocks, and birds. Prepare to preserve and display your collection – maybe a flower press for plants (this can be as simple as an old phone book), and a shadow box for displaying rocks and feathers.

2. Search for wildlife. Using a simple pair of binoculars, you and your child can watch birds, butterflies, deer, and other wildlife. Once again, enhance the experience with books. Consider a scrap book of where your child can paste her pictures or write her impressions and thoughts about viewing wildlife.

3. The insect world holds much intrigue for children. Bugs are fascinating, beautiful, sort of scary, and somewhat gross. They are perfect for kids! A little simple equipment can help. A magnifying glass is a good start. You can also get various kits that include an insect habitat and even a vacuum for capturing your insects.

4. Grow vegetables, herbs, and other garden plants. This can be as simple as sprouting seeds in a jar on a windowsill, or as elaborate as preparing a garden bed just for your child. A good compromise is to have a container garden for your child. He or she might like a journal to document the growth of the plants as well.

5. Do some crafts with those lovely seed pods, flowers, twigs, and other fall-out the woods and fields provide. Learn to make picture frames from branches, wreaths from vines, and animal shapes from seed pods and pinecones. Another fun activity is to build log cabins of various sizes with sticks.

6. Take your child on a picnic. You can use your own yard, a park, or other outdoor area. Prepare outdoor activities to go with your picnic, such as playing catch or throwing a Frisbee. This would also be a good opportunity to start that collection.

7. Find a nature trail or make your own path in the woods to walk on. Try to walk the trail at least once a month to observe the various seasonal changes.

8. Wild foods are an exciting way to collect gifts from nature. Make sure you are well-versed in plant identification, and pick a few easy species to find and eat. Try gathering honeysuckle flowers to make tea, pick wild blackberries, or snip wild onions like chives. Make sure you do not harvest any wild foods near roadsides or on public lands.

9. Feed the birds in your backyard. Get some good books on birds, a pair of binoculars, some birdseed, a feeder, and enjoy observing your feathered friends.

10. Talk to your kids about protecting nature and get them involved with earth friendly activities. Take them shopping for green school supplies and read them books about green living.

To get started you need to get some envelopes for this project but since I am not a fan of paper envelopes (deforestation for paper and their general ugliness) you may want to make a small investment in some good pouches. I like these adorable money purses from Reuseit.

A piece of masking tape or a P-Touch label on the back can help you different between purses if need be.

Using a Cash Envelope Budgeting System

1. Establish your budget… how much money exactly do you need for groceries, household bills, debt or loan payments, gas, emergency cash, etc? If you know that you will not be able to resist certain luxuries and entertainment then allot an amount for that in the budget and give it an envelope. You may decide to only use the cash system for flexible spending such as groceries, incidentals, and entertainment. Do what will work for you and help you stick to a budget.

2. As you get paid put the cash in its proper envelope. If you budget for $400 a month towards groceries then put the full amount in the envelope at the beginning of the month. For the first week take out $100 and go to the store.. that is all you have to spend. If you have any leftover at month’s end, transfer it to your entertainment and recreation envelope or your emergency funds envelope.

This system works because most will automatically try to spend less than what they have so that more will be available later in the month. It forces you to save or conserve or at the very least to use only what you budgeted or borrow from another “non essentials” envelope which will then leave you with less to spend overall. Generally you will stick to your budget by using a cash system. It works great for people who are very visual and tend to abuse their budget when their cash is out of site and out of mind.

Try it for a couple months and see it a cash envelope system will work for you!

Summer’s here and you’ve started making your annual checklist: Sunscreen? Check. Sandals? Check. Beach towels? Got ‘em. But while you’re going over the must-haves for the season, don’t forget the single most important thing your kids will need: something really great to read.

While relaxing on the beach with a good book is one of life’s most delicious pleasures, study after study has shown that reading is one of the most essential things that kids can do when school’s out. A 2002 report from National Summer Learning Association states that children lose approximately two months of learning over the summer, meaning that come September, teachers will spend those first few weeks re-teaching kids what they already learned the year before.

“Motivating children to read throughout the summer is essential to building lifelong readers,” says Carol H. Rasco, president and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit. “And reading is the doorway to all other learning.” With that in mind, how do you convince your kids to build reading time into their summer plans? Fortunately, RIF has come up with a number of ideas to help you make this summer a season of reading.

· Combine activities with books. Going to a baseball game? Head to the library and check out a biography about your child’s favorite player. Is summer camp on the agenda? See if the camp has a blog you can follow.

· Lead by example. Show kids that you love to read by picking up the newspaper each morning or sharing about something you’ve read, and they’ll understand that reading is important to everyone.

· Relax the rules. Summer is a time when children can read what, when, and how they please. Don’t set any requirements, and don’t force kids to read something they’re not interested in.

· Visit the library. It’s got thousands of books and audiobooks to borrow, computers to use, and magazines to leaf through. Make the library your “go-to” destination for the summer.

· Think outside the book. Recognize that reading can happen in many formats, from eBooks to magazines to online read-along stories. Check out www.rif.org/kids for great read-alongs and other fun games and activities designed to keep kids reading.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to this: read. Read together, read separately, read anywhere, read everywhere. It’s the surest way to make certain that your kids will start the school year off right.

Rebecca Burton is a writer/editor at Reading Is Fundamental and has been working in the children’s literacy field for the past twelve years. She loves to read, travel, and hang out on the back porch with her husband and their two-year-old daughter.

For those who crave just a little “me time” now and again, finding the time to experience it can be a challenge. Take another glance at your schedule though and see if there is some time you can carve out for yourself. It is so important for our mental health and for our relationships. How can you be a good mom, wife, friend, etc if you never have time to recharge your batteries? You may have to sacrifice another activity, or arrange for childcare or plan things better but do it!  And make it a habit while your at it…

If you make the time weekly or even monthly, your mind can get some rest knowing you have that time to yourself coming up. It will help you handle the hectic days in between with much more grace.

But how do you do it? Once you carve out the time, you may need some ideas for how to enjoy your solitude. After all, many of us have forgotten how! Here are some ideas.

* Garden – Gardening can be very therapeutic and beneficial. You are away from phones, computers, and other technological distractions while you are in the garden, and you are taking in sunlight and fresh air. Gardening provides exercise and a connection with nature, which are both important to our health and wellness.

* Walk – Again, combining exercise with solitude has a double healing effect. Try to take a walk by yourself – maybe after dinner once a week, your spouse, other family member, or friend can do the dishes for you and take care of the kids for an hour. Take your cell phone for emergencies, but turn it off during your walk. Walk in your neighborhood, or drive to a local park and walk in the woods.

* Parks – Parks are, as noted above, wonderful for solitary walks. They are also good for sitting and reflecting, either on the ground, on a rock, or on a bench. Just enjoy and observe people, the weather, and so forth. Observation removes you mentally from the rat race.

* Museum – Visit a museum with an exhibit that interests you. Take some time to contemplate art, science, history, and so forth. If you are alone, no one can make you feel rushed.

* Read – Get into a good book or magazine and you have instantly created your own personal space within your mind. Take your reading material to the aforementioned park, or just shut the door to a room in your house for awhile, making it clear that this is not time to disturb you.

* Write in a Journal – Writing also gives you access to the solitary inner world. Keep a journal that is for your eyes only, so that your solitude is protected and you do not feel pressured to come up with brilliant ideas. Take your journal to the woods or the park and write what you see and experience.

* Draw or Sketch – Your journal and sketchbook can be one in the same or separate notebooks. Either way, if sketching and or drawing is something you enjoy, it is a perfect solitary activity. Again, keep the sketchbook for your eyes only unless you want to share it.

One of the most practical, basic, and delicious things we can cook with our kids is good ole fashioned bread! Not only will it provide and activity for you and the kids to do together, it helps them learn to cook, and you might very well save money on groceries! Think of all that you can make… rolls, loaves of bread, whole wheat bread, bagels, pretzels…

Cookbook author and macrobiotic enthusiast Wendy Esko makes bread without using commercial yeast. She uses natural leavening in the form of a sourdough starter or no leavening at all; she claims that unleavened bread dough will rise on its own if placed in a warm place for 8-12 hours. But when she lets her children help her make bread, she says, it never fails to turn out well. When the children help, “they are so happy and really put a lot of happiness into the bread,” she says. Maybe you should try putting some happiness into your bread, too!

Letting your children help you bake some bread making is sure to be enjoyable and fulfilling for all. Here are some things to look forward to when you bake bread with your children, as well as some ideas on how to make it an even better experience.

Science and Math Lessons

Cooking with your kids can be a fun, hands-on way to teach them about the principles of leavening, the mathematics of measurements, and, depending on the age and interest level of your children, the chemical changes that occur when dough is kneaded and baked.

Interaction and Communication

It’s so important to spend quality time with our children. Today’s fast pace makes its so hard to do sometimes! Baking bread is a chance for everyone to slow down, gather in the kitchen, and talk with each other. Give each child a job to do so he or she can participate in the process, pointing out the importance of everyone’s role in the family. A lot of good lessons, such as teamwork, can be taught in the kitchen.

Health Benefits

If you have trouble getting your kids to eat healthy bread (perhaps they prefer the squeezable white stuff from the store), try making a whole grain loaf with your children. They will be much more likely to eat bread they have helped to make, and that they are proud of.

Make Some Memories

Don’t forget the creation of memories. Warm, positive childhood recollections can provide retreat and solace in the adult years. These kinds of memories are a priceless gift you can give to your children. Take pictures so that your kids can remember their bread making adventures.

Tradition

The baking of bread with the children can become a family tradition. Your children can then pass the tradition on when they start families of their own.

Don’t Limit Yourself

The traditional kneaded loaf is not the only way to go. Get creative with your children and bake big, soft pretzels or flat breads. Make braided loaves, rolls, or pull-apart “monkey bread.” You can make sweet breads, quick breads, cornbread, or sourdough breads. Let your children come up with some ideas, too.

Above all, have fun and enjoy your time together!

We recommend: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking

This is a great project for bored kids. If they can do the whole project from tracing to painting/drawing it can keep them occupied for hours! For smaller children an adult may need to do the tracing and cutting part…

To start I downloaded a paper doll template from Family Fun. I LOVE their magazine! You could free hand a design and cut that out to.

Using the printable doll on its own to color in is another awesome activity but I wanted to use up some paper bags we had laying around the house. I cut out the template and traced one half of her onto folded a paper bag… the cut edge goes along the fold.

After cutting out the doll you can paint her, color, her or use markers to fill her in… whatever your heart desires. My daughter opted to use water colors with plant based dyes.

Enjoy!

Childhood obesity is a growing problem in this country, and getting our children up off the couch and outdoors is a great way to combat this issue. Helping them to connect with nature and find joy in the outdoors is not only good for the body but for the mind and, some would say, the soul as well.

As you look for ways to encourage your children to get outside, remember to make it a family affair. One of the keys to getting everyone moving is just that – everyone should get moving! Grown-ups need exercise, too, and doing outdoor activities together can really foster familial relationships. The best way to teach is by example.

Here are some ideas for things you can do to get your indoor kids outside.

1. Designate the Time

Yes, this is hard, but waiting for outside time just to “happen” means that it never will. Even if it is only once a week at  first, set aside at least an hour for outdoor activities. Then work up to daily time outside, and longer weekly times.

2. Hang a Swing

Let your kids help you find an old tire – there are always some around in need of re-using – and attach one end of a rope to the tire and the other end to a stout tree branch.

3. Start a Garden

You don’t need a big yard for this; containers work, too, just so long as it is outdoors. Children are interested in growing things, and are proud of what they grow. Try growing vegetables or herbs to encourage your child to get out and tend his or her garden.

4. Nature Crafts

From pressing leaves to making miniature log cabins from sticks, nature crafts can inspire and motivate. Make picture frames from large sticks, Christmas ornaments from pine cones, baskets or wreaths from vines, or animals from pine cones, nuts, teasels, etc.

5. Collect and Identify

Children do love collections, so why not start a nature-inspired one? Rocks, plants (press to preserve), insects (think fireflies), feathers, seed pods, etc. all make educational collections. Get a field guide to identify what you and your children find.

6. The Weirdness Factor

Some children love to find the weirdest bug or the goofiest looking tree. Go outside and lift up rocks, and you are bound to find some weird critters that will fascinate your children. Bring out a magnifying glass.

7. Have a Cook-out or Picnic

Have the family come outside for a meal. If you can cook outside, have everyone come out with you. Children can help with the cooking or just run around enjoying the outdoors while you cook. Picnics are great ways to get out, too; bring a kite, Frisbee, or other activity with you and you’ll find yourselves spending hours outdoors.

8. Fun for All Seasons

Don’t let the weather stop you. Rainy days can be wonderful days for a walk; put on boots and splash in puddles or make mud pies. In snowy weather, build a snowman or slide down hills. There is something to do outdoors all year ’round.