Originally published on?ElizabethStreet.com.
Heidi Powell shares some fun pool games to play with your kids. They won?t even know they?re exercising!
With a little help from personal trainer?Heidi Powell, we start the week right every Monday. Today, the mom of three has some great ideas for staying active this summer with fun pool games the whole family will enjoy.
Summer break is finally here, and it?s time to ditch our school-day routines and splash into some summer fun. Where will Chris and I be hanging out with the kids to escape that summer heat and get in some fun family fitness time? The pool, of course, and the best part is that the kids won?t even know they?re exercising! Here are some pool exercises and fun pool games that will keep the whole family cool, happy, and fit during the summer months.
Relay Races
Divide everyone into teams, set the relay course, and decide how you?ll move: you can require everyone to do the same stroke, let everyone choose, or use toys like a pool noodle or boogie board. You can even randomly change the activity during the race for some added fun.
Marco Polo
One player?Marco Polo?shuts his eyes and counts to ten while the other players scatter throughout the pool. While his eyes remain closed, Marco Polo shouts ?Marco,? and the other players must shout ?Polo,? which helps Marco Polo find them. When he tags another player, she becomes Marco Polo and the game starts all over again. Everyone is constantly moving (and therefore exercising) to avoid becoming Marco Polo.
Treasure Hunt
Place several objects at the bottom of the pool. When the game starts, the hunters retrieve their treasures one at a time and put them in a poolside container. The hunter with the most treasures at the end wins! You can play in teams, use a timer to make it more competitive, or make it a scavenger hunt wherein each person or team has to find one of several different items.
Sharks and Minnows
One player is the shark, and the other players are the minnows. The minnows line up at one end of the pool, and the shark stays in the middle. On the word ?go,? the minnows try to swim to the other end of the pool while the shark tries to catch them. It they make it, they?re safe. If they don?t, they become sharks, and the remaining minnows have to try and get by a growing number of sharks. The last minnow swimming wins!
Ping Pong Pile-Up
Throw a bunch of ping-pong balls into the pool. Players retrieve the balls one by one as quickly as possible, and whoever piles up the most wins. You can number each ball so that the players or team with the most points wins, or put a colored dot on each ball so that the player or team that retrieves the most of their color wins.
I think we?ll be taking a trip to the pool today, how about you?
