Back in 2014 when I wrote my dissertation on childhood obesity, one of the main findings of my research was that children simply do not play outside or as actively as they used to. I totally understand parents' fears, but we need to let our children play as actively as possible. They need to rough and tumble, to play fight. It's how they learn their boundaries. Even chimps play in that way.
When we moved up from London to Yorkshire back in 2003, it was with a view to having children and bringing them up in the countryside. As most of you know, we have ended up living in my grandma's house and running her B&B. We have space outside for the children to play and we live in a small village with very few safety concerns. In the summer they are free to roam outside and play. It's important to me that they have freedom and some independence. I know that we are really lucky to be living in such a great place.
In the winter it's a little more difficult to get out and about. It's certainly not as appealing to play out when it's wet and cold. Thankfully there are some amazing indoor play facilities nearby. We have some soft play areas and also my favourite, ClipNClimb in Ilkley. It's a great place for ages four and up. There are twenty-one different climbing challenges which all vary in difficulty. There is a safety briefing before the session and then children have an hour to climb and lower back down to the ground. It's a fantastic automatic climbing rope which takes up the slack as you climb and lowers you gently back to the ground when you put your weight on it to come down again. My children are old enough to really enjoy setting challenges on each obstacle, like how fast they can make it to the top, or only using specific colours to climb on.
When we moved up from London to Yorkshire back in 2003, it was with a view to having children and bringing them up in the countryside. As most of you know, we have ended up living in my grandma's house and running her B&B. We have space outside for the children to play and we live in a small village with very few safety concerns. In the summer they are free to roam outside and play. It's important to me that they have freedom and some independence. I know that we are really lucky to be living in such a great place.
In the winter it's a little more difficult to get out and about. It's certainly not as appealing to play out when it's wet and cold. Thankfully there are some amazing indoor play facilities nearby. We have some soft play areas and also my favourite, ClipNClimb in Ilkley. It's a great place for ages four and up. There are twenty-one different climbing challenges which all vary in difficulty. There is a safety briefing before the session and then children have an hour to climb and lower back down to the ground. It's a fantastic automatic climbing rope which takes up the slack as you climb and lowers you gently back to the ground when you put your weight on it to come down again. My children are old enough to really enjoy setting challenges on each obstacle, like how fast they can make it to the top, or only using specific colours to climb on.
Their energy levels have definitely improved since they began take Swisse Junior Ultivite for ages four to seven. They taste nice and are a food supplement that the two of them both enjoy taking. It certainly helps that their energy levels are increased, because they always seem to be doing some kind of sport, or running around chasing each other!
I have recently started taking High Strength Co-Enzyme Q10, another product from Swisse which is aimed to elp my energy production and release when I am exercising. I am still not quite up to running properly again, but I am starting to incorporate some HIIT workouts and Pilates sessions into my weekly workouts, alongside walking for an hour a day. To have a look at the full range of Swisse products, check out their website.
Disclosure: We were provided with supplements and a trip to ClipNClimb for the purpose of this post. All opinions are my own.
