By Kathleen Connelly

The kids have been waiting for this all year … summer is here! Honestly, I have been waiting too! I love summer and love planning what activities we can do. However with a family of five it can be difficult to please everyone. So I have a suggestion that will help families have lots of healthy fun while including everyone in the planning process.

Create your own Family Summer Bingo Board. It can be as large as you want it, 10 spots, 20 or maybe even 30. Now fill that board up with healthy challenges for the family to complete during June, July and August. Let everyone participate in choosing the activities. For example, for active spots, list hiking at Fort Benjamin Harrison, getting wet at the splash pad at Billericay Park or a bike ride after dinner. For healthy food challenges, create spots to try a new summer salad, go for a picnic at Holland Park or pick strawberries at a one of the local farms.

Reading is good for our brain fitness, so create a board spot for participating in the Fishers Library Summer Reading Program. If you want ideas for home, fill a spot with sprinkler fun in the afternoon or cooking dinner together for some quality family time. The possibilities are endless.

Once your board is full of all of your family’s ideas for healthy activities for the summer, hang it up somewhere visible and start highlighting or crossing off activities as you complete them. You can even plan a reward like a family outing to the zoo or a museum trip at the end of the summer if all challenges get completed.

I have many clients tell me they want to influence their kids to be healthy. My answer every time is your kids will be influenced by what you do not by what you say. Not every activity as to involve mom and dad, but try to make most of them family friendly. Maybe you even challenge another family to compete to see who can complete their board first.

Take the challenge, create a family health bingo board and the whole family will stay healthy and happy throughout the summer months!