Making Running Fun For Kids Ideas?

Options
murphey21
murphey21 Posts: 126 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So, my wife and I decided to take over the Read, Right, Run program at our daughters' school. It is a program they have done off and on, but the past few years nobody has done it, so we decided what better way to get our kids healthy and us healthy at the same time while having fun. To sum it up, the kids in the program will have to read 26 books, run 26 miles, and do 26 good deed by April 11, 2015. We will meet once a week for an hour to check journals and workout as a group. The last mile we run as a group the day of the race and there is also a 5K I am setting my goal at too. So, what I need from all of my awesome MFP friends, is ideas on how to keep running interesting and fun for kids. I don't just want them to show up and we run a mile, I want to vary the routine up but still run our mile also, but have fun at the same time. The age group is kindergarten through 8th grade. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Replies

  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    Options
    Since it is a book based thing, how about a collectible series of material? If no money for books, maybe bookmarks or the pages to make a book and/or complete a story? Tear up a Dean Karnazes book lol
  • onefortyone
    onefortyone Posts: 531 Member
    Options
    Perhaps run in outfits/costumes? The kids would have fun doing that and it could turn it more into a game? Or a pyjama run?

    I saw something on a show once about a race - they all ran around the track as quickly as possible. But then they learned the race wasn't against each other - it was against themselves! So they ran around the track again, and the ones who beat their original time got a prize :) it was cute, brings out a competitiveness but gives the 'slower' runners a chance to win as well, and shows that they can improve.

    You could also give rewards like badges or little tokens for each mile they do - definitely heap on the praise!

  • murphey21
    murphey21 Posts: 126 Member
    Options
    Thanks both of you have great ideas. The token thing we already looked into and they have monthly tokens for each month with the holiday or special day in the month they represent like October has Pumpkins, November has turkeys, December has christmas trees, etc etc. Maybe for Halloween we will have a Halloween costume party and run!

Categories