It's important for every UK family to get regular exercise, and even a little bit makes a huge difference to your family's health. Here's our great guide to making exercise fun, and making fitness a part of your family's life.

The more the merrier!

Encourage the kids to invite their friends to come round, and give them exercise-based tasks to do. They will probably even want to swim, bike or hike for a longer period of time if there is someone to enjoy it with: so you could set them up on bicycles, ask them to walk to the shops, or put up a basketball/netball hoop.

Tag

Almost everyone has played tag at one point or another. If you have not introduced your kids to this wonderful game, then now is the perfect time. This is one of the most fun kids fitness activities there are. All that kids have to do is choose someone to be it, and then that person runs around tagging the others. When they are caught they have to freeze until a teammate comes and untags them. To put a fun twist on the game, give kids flashlights, and let them play tag in the dark.

Outdoor lawn work

Such things as pushing a lawn mower, raking leaves and gardening are all beneficial, low impact ways to burn some calories. Kids won't naturally enjoy this activity as it seems too much like a chore... until you bet them that they can't rake all the leaves in under 5 minutes! Reward success with an extra half-hour of video-game time.

Cleaning windows

Sure, cleaning windows is not the most fun of activities, but it's one that almost all of us need to do a few times a year. Next time you dread the thought of window-cleaning time, remember it's another way to burn calories and work your upper body. It works for the kids, too: use treats like a trip to the cinema as an incentive, and watch them go!

Walk the pet

If all else fails, make dog-walking a daily chore that they must do for at least 30 minutes every day before dark. If they do it every night of the week, they can be rewarded with an outing of their choice. You could do it together, and treat it as bonding time, or watch your child's independence and sense of responsibility grow as they get used to doing it every night.

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