how can I get my whole family to be more active?

[parietal]

The family is myself + DD 12 years + DD 8 years
(+ DH but he can look after himself)

At weekends, the kids would be happy to do minecraft / lego all day and never leave the house. When they were little, we did swimming and walks but now I'm told those are 'boring'. And I agree that the small council pool or a walk around a soggy patch of grass in North London is rather boring.

Options I'm considering

• kids sport classes (they hate it & have no talent)
• enforced swimming
• buy a home exercise bike
• anything else??

What do your kids of that age do to get moving? Ideally something that will keep me active too.

Geocaching

Get a ddog!!

Walk places - hot chocolate, museums, the cinema. Tell them you’re lowering your carbon footprint, make it fun. Take up park run as a group. Have a step count league

We're a fan of walks. Drive/train a bit out of town and find a trail or go to a NT with grounds. Capital Ring if you want to stay in London, museums/parks.

I'm also a fan of "I don't care if you think it's boring, we're doing it anyway"

Pokemon Go
Geocaching
Parkrun - junior or adult, volunteering or running
Dog walking
Yoga
Get some cheap fitbit things and set weekly challenges with pocket money rewards?

Second walking to places. Also get public transport to places further afield. Based in London there are loads of places to go, and if you don't drive there you will find yourselves clocking up walking miles just getting from A to B.

As a family we have a project of walking the Thames Path (we live on the Thames further upstream). So every couple of weekends we choose a section to pick off and then mark it on the map later.

Running is really amazing for building fitness (better than walking) but you have to have some motivation for doing it.

You're northlondon? Hit the tube! There's loads of places to see in London... Walking there is not like trudging your own streets.

I remember usborne books had a pack of cards of places to go... let the kids choose where. Make your own list.

Play the underground game. You get them somewhere they figure out the train route home.

We always used to go home completely knackered!!

Volunteering - litter picks or tree planting
Any indoor climbing centres or similar nearby? A really good fitness thing that is also quite exciting and appeals to children who like spatial puzzles.

Ooh yes, and a big project/challenge idea, that's a great one.
Could kind of appeal in a minecraft survival mode type thing.
Or also for every milestone you achieve in the challenge, you get a small piece of lego kit which compiles up into a larger set?

we do quite a lot of walks to museums / cafes etc but the good ones are an all day expedition. Sometimes we've only got an hour or two before dinner, so any ideas for that time?

Also... Look at the books "london's hidden walks". Kids get to look out for points of interest.

Everything we did was free as I was totally skint. Tube fares were minimal.

Away from gadgets and commercial stuff, these really were good times out.

Cycling to a nice destination at weekends, canoeing / rowing, hiking with an overnight stay in a bunk house (there are loads within the Peak District, which is quick to get to from London by train), geocaching, climbing. Also making sure you walk to places wherever possible rather than go by car.

There are loads of good child friendly yoga, mindfulness, stretching, body strength exercises on youtube.
We've got some cheap equipment from aldi/TK maxx - balance board, stretchy bands, little dumbells, foam rollers - a home circuits session would work well! Nothing more complicated than 20-30 mins of planks, balancing, stretchy band stuff and yoga poses. Write up their achievements in a little chart so they can map their progress and improvement.

stretchy bands and home gym things sound appealing given how rainy it is ...

Skateboarding. Cheap sport that anyone can get involved in. Indoor park if it's raining, outdoor when it's dry.

start brazilian juijitsu as a family, it will change your life

London Walks, as in the organised walking tours? Kids go free. Good way to kickstart the walking habit.

Cheap pedometers for the kids and challenge them to hit 10,000 steps for the day?

What about doing a challenge together? 30 Day Shred (without weights for the little one)?

Do you have room for a ping pong table? Kick a ball around in the garden? Mini trampolines?

Bouldering, swimming, cycling

Doing things with friends is good at that age, and try to change the mindset of no talent. I love cycling but I’m rubbish at it. I still go but I just don’t get competitive with others!

Sharing a dog with someone if you can’t commit to one yourselves.

Although screens... dd and I spent a good hour doing really bad dance moves with Just Dance on the wii last weekend. Got us laughing and moving inside as the weather was pants.

I was going to suggest Geocaching but the 12 year old might be right on the edge of finding it interesting v finding it lame. Mine got fed up with it around that age.

Do not get a dog.

Loads of really good suggestions on here already. There are so many places to walk/run in North London. Hampstead Heath is amazing! When visiting MIL in St Johns Wood we walk everywhere and often walk into central London and back to visit restaurants, parks and museums. Can easily to 20k steps on a Saturday.

Don't worry about the rain, wind or snow. Teach your kids to be out in all weathers and that it's easy to wrap up warm. We've just come back from a week in The Alps- it was rainy, snowy, windy but we were never cold or wet.

Geocaching, park run etc. are all great. My kids don't really enjoy organised sports lessons but both love long walks with other families ( ending in crisps at a pub), very muddy runs ( the muddier the better), walking a friend's dog ( maybe look at borrow my doggy?) and they LOVE bouldering, which is adventurous and rusk taking, unstructured but actually pretty safe and great exercise.

Good luck and have fun

Thanks for so many good ideas.

kids are scared of dogs + we don't have time to care for one, so we definitely won't be getting a pet.

i'm especially looking for ideas for indoor things. I guess something like Zumba classes for kids, or anything similar ...

we do a lot of walks (especially in the summer) but a soaking wet walk every weekend is hard for everyone.

agree, not a dog unless you fancy 15 years of picking up excreta and never being able to go out for more than a few hours.

remember that there is much more to sport than 'team' sport, which is often an exercise in bullying. Lots of good suggestions on here. Stay away from teams, anything involving a ball and anything involving running faster than others and exercise will be fun.

Badminton - can be played in the garden if big enough.
Outdoor gym? Most boroughs will have one or more, some are great (and it's nicer than indoor gym as long as not raining).