Are you looking for some ideas on how to activ8 your family at home?
Here are some activities adapted from the activ8 program.

activ8 Your Family While Watching TV!
Families today are spending more time in front of the TV and less time being physically active. While many families would like to be more active, it can sometimes be difficult to give up a favourite television show for exercising. So why not compromise and try these mobile activities from the activ8 program during the commercial breaks?

• Push it - Challenge yourselves to do as many push-ups as you can during one commercial. For the next commercial, challenge yourselves to do as many crunches as you can. Continue to alternate between push-ups and crunches for the remainder of the commercial break.
  
  
• Step to it - During the commercial break, walk up and down the stairs once before returning back to the TV.
  
  
• Happy Hearts - When the commercials begin, get out of your seats and try to sustain activity for the entire commercial break. Try marching or jogging on the spot, jumping jacks, or stepping side-to-side. Try having a different family member lead the activity for each commercial break during a TV program.

activ8 Your Child's Birthday Party!
Are you tired of the same old children's party games like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey"? Try these mobile activities from the activ8 program at your child's next party!

• Rainbow Toss - Place paper targets on a wall one metre from the floor. You can use a variety of coloured paper to make the room look a little more festive. Put tape on the floor to mark the "toss line". Using an underhand throwing motion with a beanbag or foam ball, children should try to hit the paper targets from the various distances.
  
  
• Animal Chase - Children form a circle. One beanbag (or stuffed animal) is sent around the circle. While the first beanbag (or stuffed animal) is going around the circle, a second beanbag is introduced. The object of the game is for the second beanbag to try to catch up with the first. More beanbags can be introduced.

activ8 Your Next Trip to the Park!
Visiting the same neighborhood park week after week can lose its appeal after a while. Spice up your family's next trip to the park with these mobile activities from the activ8 program!

• Multicatch - Practice throwing and catching a variety of objects to one another. Examples of objects include a tennis ball, a frisbee, a football, a foam ball, a softball, and/or a basketball. Start close together then gradually move further away from each other as your family becomes more successful at throwing and catching the different objects.
  
  
• Bench Beaters - Practice various ways of moving along a bench or other raised surface in the park. Examples include walking backwards, walking sideways, crab walking, small jumps, etc.
  

activ8 Your Youth Sport Practices!
Are you a community coach looking for new ideas for your practices? To make your team smile while they sweat, try these fun challenges from the activ8 program!

• Adventure Run – Set-up an obstacle course running activity in the gym or outside using benches, pylons, hula hoops, chalk lines, skipping ropes, trees, goal posts, etc. Children should practice the run and then time it. The children should then try to improve their time. For a variation, have the children complete the obstacle course while dribbling a soccer ball or basketball, or while throwing and catching a softball to a partner.
  
  
• Body of Steel – Set-up a five station circuit. At each station, children should perform an exercise for 30 seconds. There should be a five to ten second rest between stations. Stations can include jump rope, wall push-ups, squat jumps, abdominal crunches, and a bench step-up.

activ8 Your Family Indoors!
Rainy skies, snowstorms, and brisk winter temperatures may mean that families have to stay indoors. However, being indoors does not mean that you can't be active. Try these mobile activities from the activ8 program the next time your family is stuck indoors!

• Bean Bag Glue - Move around the house while balancing a bean bag on various body parts. Young children can try to crawl while balancing the bean bag on their back. Older children can try walking with the bean bag on their head, shoulder, or back of the hand, while changing levels and directions. This may even be a challenge for the adults of the house!
  
  
• Workin' It Out - Move to music using various forms of locomotion such as skipping, sliding, crab walking, etc.
  
  
• Bowlerama - Place a target at the end of the hallway (i.e. plastic cups). Standing at the opposite end of the hall, roll a small ball and try to hit the target.

activ8 Your Family After School!
Are you interested in finding out what your children did at school today? Try this simply activity from the activ8 program when you want to find out how their day went!

• What did you do today? - Ask your children a series of questions which have a "yes" or "no" answer. If the answer to the question is "yes", the children perform jumping jacks to tell you their answer is "yes". If the answer to the question is "no", the children run on the spot to tell you their answer is "no". *Be sure to vary the questions so that children are not always doing the same activity.

Sample Questions:
Did you have a physical education class today?
Did you have a math test today?
Did you go outside at recess today?
Did you walk to school with your best friend today?
Did you see the principal today?

Variations: