I've been thinking that a good idea to increase physical activity is to start doing some form of exercise with my kids. I have two boys, ages 7 and 5. I have tried in the past when they were younger to do yoga and kids dance videos with them, but their attention span didn't seem to be there. Now that they are a little older I'm thinking it might be a little easier to get their focus and hold their interest. Does anyone else have any thoughts on good exercises to do with kids this age? I'm specifically looking for stuff that can be done indoors with limited space becasue it's wintertime and our house is small, but if you have summer, outdoor ideas those would be great too.

If your furniture is sturdy, I'd try the floor is lava. it will have you climbing around the house, working your thighs and diaphram (from laughter). I'd also take (or buy) some old sheets and make tent tunnels to crawl through. If you have a long hallway, leapfrog works too.. And then there's freeze tag.

For summer I recommend bike riding at the park- that's a lot of fun.

Another thing is to maybe push the furniture out of the way- put on some music and dance! Get some kids songs CD's and jam out with the kids

Or even some games on the wii- they have some workout ones that you and the kids can do together i'm sure. Even dance dance revolution might be a good one for the 7 year old (not sure about the 5 year old).

Random dancing usually is my biggest exercise with the kids indoors. I have a pair of drum sticks and hit them together then turn on the radio...and then we just dance. After a few minutes it gets turned off and we go back to what ever we are doing. It lasts just long enough to have their attention...I have an 8, 5, and 3 year old.