Get up and MOVE it, move it!

     I had so much fun watching my step-daughter at mini-cheer camp the past two afternoons! And, they have their big performance at the game tomorrow night, which will be tons of fun (plus, many of my friends from Leavenworth will be in the house to see our little cutie, since we are playing them!).
     While watching the kids run around, laugh, and learn new dance skills, I thought about how much fun I had when I was a little girl, living in Spokane.
     My mom enrolled both my brother and me in a City Parks and Recreation program for the summer. It was a day camp for two months, and culminated with an overnight weekend.
     I participated in that program for several years while growing up. I had so much fun and learned lots of cool things, but more importantly I was outside ALL day long!
     I was thinking about how different today is for our kids than just thirty years ago. We didn't own a computer or a game system (when I was a teenager, my parents did buy the Atari).
     Perfectly content and not knowing differently, I loved living outside from sunrise to well into the night.
     The other day in my class I talked about playing kick the can in our neighborhood, and I couldn't believe how many kids didn't even know what the game was. It actually made me kind of sad.
     I love that I have summers off because the kids and I spend as much time outside as possible. We go swimming (both at the pool and the lake), jump on the trampoline, make forts, play with the animals, hike and camp.
     I even recently read a great story about a teacher who used a stationary bike in her classroom during reading time! While the teacher reads a book out loud to her students, they take daily turns at riding the bike and clocking the miles. Then they write those miles onto a map of the United States to show how far they travelled. Very cool!
     Ya know, sadly there are even schools where PE has been completely cut out of the program!!
     It was fun watching our little ones be so active this week! I was talking to my girlfriend Michelle about how I should start up a camp this summer. I definitely have some big ideas!