Physical Activities to Share with 7 Year Old

We like to dance. Sometimes we do the wii dance and sometimes we just put on some good music. My son loves it.

We have a few walks around town we take. Mine are 5, 7 and 9 so they can finally all ride scooters and bikes...I like to walk/jog while they ride one of those things. If they walk with me, they're too slow. If they ride a bike or scooter, we go farther and faster and I have to keep up!

Tennis is tough if they don't have the hand-eye coordination. It may be too frustrating. You could consider badminton - the birdie doesn't go as fast as the ball, and it doesn't end up a mile away because it doesn't bounce. The sets are not expensive - check toy, sporting goods, and dollar stores.

Have you seen the sets like "Scatch" and others? There's a disk you wear on your hand - sort of like a frisbee with velcro in it. There's a velcro ball. You can throw it back and forth but the kid doesn't have to be quite as accurate with this disk as with a regular baseball glove. If the ball hits the velcro disk, it latches on. The kid can pull it off and throw it back right away. It's a good beach or backyard game.

Roller blades? A lot of kids in our neighborhood use them. Same with rip sticks - there's a lot of wiggling that goes on to stay upright and make it go forward - good core workout.

Nature walks - walk the beach or the nature trail, collect stuff, come home and wash it (if necessary) and then create an art project. People do pine cone wreathes, dried herb wreathes, etc. My husband always collected shells of varying sorts, also stray crab claws and so on, and then got a simple piece of wood from the craft store and arranged the shells in a shape, gluing them down. A little paint created a background - he used a tan or green color for the land, then a blue sky and maybe a yellow sun. Then he had a little dancing shell man or a flower glued on top. Cheap white frame, and it looks great on the wall. This gives you an indoor project for rainy or blistering hot days and gives you a purpose to the nature walk, which makes the kid want to do it more often.

My son (no kidding) used to collect rocks, bring them home and wash them, then paint them and give them as paperweights. Walking with 2 small buckets of rocks was weight training!

Can you do some short distance kayaking? She might get tired and make the rental seem like a waste, but you can try it.

Dog walking for neighbors - she can probably make a few bucks on the side too, but mostly it lets them know how much work pets are. My son turned this into a major job, with lawn mowing and taking in people's mail during vacations. He started at 9 with pet care, and it grew from there. It was a great activity that made money, got him lots of references, and could be worked around our schedule. At this age, your daughter needs your supervision of course, but it's a starting point.

Why does she need to be your companion? Can't you do stuff on your own at the YMCA or a gym? Can't you go and take her to the Y child care or let her go to a friends house so you can go exercise? We don't make our kids our workout buddies because we have different activity levels and we don't need the same things.

My kids will actually work out with me. They'll grab a light set of my hand weights and try to do what I'm doing on the screen. They usually don't stick with it the whole time, but at least part of it gets them moving.
Mine are 5 and 7.

I found a cross fit gym that has a kids room. I looked high and low for this. I don't think its very common. Had to find a single mom gym owner who "gets it". We also invested in a large trampoline which is a great way to have fun together and get out of breath.

How about walking. I do with my granddaughters everyday. We find birds, flowers, different rocks. We have lots of fun and we communicate. Like a conversation! I highly recommend it.

what about geocaching? If you are wanting to walk the trails look into this and maybe your daughter will like it too.

Can she ride with out training wheels yet? If not, teach her and she'll pick it up quick. Then she can bike beside you while you run, I do that with my son on a safe bike path often. We'll go 3-4 miles, he'll be 7 next month.
Hiking is ok, but I find that kids that age do not really enjoy/appreciate hiking any longer than a mile or so. A 7 year old will get more enjoyment out of sports type activities and playing over endurance exercise.

I was thinking biking and swimming and hiking. What about roller skating/ice skating/dancing? Are there any mom and me aerobics classes?

Rather than stopping every x feet, what about making it more like a bingo card. If she sees x birds and x deer she wins?

We do hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, pedal boating, rock climbing and high ropes together. We are members at the Y and when they were little I would leave them in the child care, as they got older they did the drop in programs (soccer, floor hockey, basketball etc) or go swimming while I worked out.

Ditto what Sarah K. recommended. I have wanted to try geocaching with my son for a while now, and plan to give it a try this summer. A friend recommended it- she does geocaching regularly with her grandkids. They all seem to really enjoy it. According to her, depending on where you go, it can be quite the hike.

Is there someplace where you can do rock climbing walls? What about geocaching or letter boxing? There are website where you can find caches and boxes hidden in your local area. A bounce house? Zumba classes.

My son loves his scooter. We take walks every day around our neighborhood with our dog. It's good excersize. We also love yoga, canoeing, sports, swimming. We also have an elliptical machine the family uses.

I remember when I was that age my mom and I would take horseback riding lessons on the weekends.

We joined a gym as a family. Weights, machines, ellipticals, pool, treadmills, bikes, etc.
For beginning tennis, what I did was use the big wall at the park to get my sons basic techniques going. Ant large, windowless wall will do.

Have you considered entering into a 3k or 5k walk/run? I am certainly not suggesting she run it (I have an issue with young kids running on pavement/concrete long distances), but walking it would be fine. The small races are usually fairly cheap to enter, but you usually get a t-shirt and sometimes a medal. Plus, there is sometimes an "expo" the day before with stuff to do and see, and almost always an after party. Great way to meet other folks interested in staying healthy with their kids too (you will see ALOT of moms walking with kids and with strollers at these). Plus, your kiddo gets the fun prize at the end :)

Good luck!

We play badminton and Frisbee in our back yard. We got one of those big Frisbees covered in fabric you can find now - way easier for little ones to use. By the time you've retrieved the birdies and the Frisbee all over the yard it's not a bad workout if you can't bike or swim that day :) (my kids have terrible aim).

Canoeing and kayaking are fun. Tend to do more on weekends with kids if we're camping, but good exercise (they can paddle as much or as little as they want).

Love the idea of geocaching. Friends of ours spend their weekends doing that.

A friend takes Zumba with her daughter at a mommy-me type class once a week. If I was more fit, that's what I would do.

Enjoy your summer :)