June 27, 2015: Play
We introduced a new health topic: PLAY! Play is important for children for multiple reasons: it helps them learn, develop their social skills, develop their emotions, develop their physical skills and… it’s fun. Play comes in many forms, but essential are engagement of the child’s mind and/or body. Of course playing soccer is active, but a parent playing a board game with a child can be active in the social aspect. Watching television and playing video games (with some exceptions) tend to be passive ways to spend time. Play an also be indoor or outdoor, alone or with others, and structured (like soccer) or unstructured (like digging in the sandbox). Just like eating a healthy diet means eating a variety of foods, healthy play means doing lots of different activities.
To demonstrate, we had two great destinations. First, we stopped at the Pleasant Village Community Garden where we had a lot of fun exploring the different areas: garden plots, fruit trees, sitting areas, an open space for running around, the chicken coop, and, of course, the compost bins where we donated our food waste. If you’d like to contact the Pleasant Village garden, click here.
Next, we we’re very pleased to join our good friend, Mac Levine, and her Concrete Safaris crew for their annual Jungle Gym obstacle race and active living fair. In the spirit of play, it offered a lot of different activities. Several of our participants competed in the race—check out the slide show to see the fun!
Stats
Date: June 27, 2015
Adults: 33
Children: 50
Total: 83
Miles: 1.77
Calories: 420* (and more for the race contestants!)
Time: about 3 hours
Co-leaders: Jude Appiah, Georgia Bancheri, Claire Castellano, Stella Chong, Cappy Collins, Inginia Garcia, Megan Horton, Katie Litman, Deysi Martinez, Emma Murphy, Katelynn Pan, Bunny Sheffield, Perry Sheffield
*http://www.nutristrategy.com/activitylist4.htm
“Walking, under 2.0 mph, very slow,” 155lbs = 140 kcal/hr