Jeff:
I wouldn’t call this a repeat episode, but a deviation of an episode we’ve done in the past that you guys liked, and this one is five ways to help your kids burn energy in the winter. We’ve done an episode talking about embracing winter as a family team, and you guys really love that, so we wanted to focus one layer down of, okay, well what about high energy kids specifically, what about when kind of the house gets pent up, so we’re just going to rattle off five really quick ones.

And the first one is exercise as a family. This is a big one. We like to do something like this. Jeremy, I’d love to hear how you guys do this with older kids, but for us with toddlers, it really just means do anything that’s active. So chase the kids around the house, that’s a game we actually play, we’re all actually basically kind of just [inaudible 00:01:04], I think they call it mad duck or something like that, which is this game that their grandpa taught them, which basically just run around and chase each other and that is our version of exercise when you’re toddlers.

Or I’ll actually do this little app, like the Nike app on the iPad, which is a really fun one where we all actually try to incorporate … we do it in the garage and incorporate the kids to like, hey, do it with me, do the pushups, do the crunches, all that stuff. And that’s a really fun one, and I noticed that really helps. Even though I will say by the way, granted, we do live in Maui, so we don’t have that struggle as much with winter, it’s more just struggle with toddlerhood, which has its own winter, winter is coming, toddlers have came, but yeah, Jeremy, what would you say?

Jeremy:
Yeah. Another one you guys is that there are all these new kind of video game platforms that require movement. They use balls, they kind of use that kind of kinetic energy. And this can be a lot of fun as a family. And so finding a couple of games that your family likes, some of the dance games are this way, but there’s a lot of other ones that are constantly coming out. It’s one of the great things about some of the modern video game consoles that really do a lot more sort of action, so that could be another thing that you invest in during the winter to burn off some of that energy.

Jeff:
Yes. Another one is inside playhouse or trampoline park. So we actually have one here on Maui, if you ever come to Maui, Ultimate Air. We love Ultimate Air. John, if you’re watching, you’re the man, a good friend own and operate and run that thing, and it’s just like the cleanest, the nicest, the best one. And our kids absolutely love it. I mean, I love it, right? It’s one of those ones where I kind of want to go, because I want to jump and I want to absolutely blow up ten-year-olds in the Dodge ball arena and it’s so fun. But yeah, that’s a really, really good one.

And I think there’s nothing better, I don’t know many places like the warehouses or kind of trampoline parks that are the best psychologically for just containment of toddlers where you can visually see them, but you kind of know they’re in a building. That alone is worth it. When I really need peace of mind or just want to just let them kind of go without having to micromanage them or make sure they don’t die, that’s a great place.

Jeremy:
Yeah. I would say another one you guys is wrestling with your kids. There’s so much evidence that this is really, really helpful for bonding. It’s not just for energy, there’s a lot of … So if you’re resistant to this or you haven’t really thought about this, I would encourage you guys, especially in the winter, maybe set up a room in your house, pad it a little bit more and make it a fun thing for you and your kids just kind of wrestle around on the floor and really enjoy that time. And to make it a time is really kind of a cool idea, especially again, in the winter, try to burn energy, don’t get them all riled up right before you put them to bed. This is something that’s kind of good to do a couple of hours before bedtime, but really try to get out that energy and really enjoy that sort of rough and tumble play that is so healthy between dads and their kids.

Jeff:
Yep. And then the last one is, and Jeremy’s actually seen this one firsthand, is scooter track, which we have a fun little home where our downstairs can go in a circle, meaning you can just literally go in and it’s set up perfect for a track. And so … And by the way, I’m totally of the belief, and I think dads take this on too, of I want our home to be a place of joy, of fun, of being a blast, almost to be a little theme park. And so I want to push the envelope with how far can we go of bringing fun, rebellious quote unquote, things that people say don’t do in the home, like throwing balls or riding your skateboard or riding your scooter and do them in the home while of course respecting the home, making sure stuff doesn’t break.

And so we push that and we test it, rather than no to everything we say, hey, can we get scooters that have non-marking wheels, and we’ve found those, and so then they do that and it’s fun and it doesn’t leave any marks. We tried, can we play catch or can you throw a football in the house. At some level we did but then they started to break some things too much, so we said, hey, maybe let’s wait until you’re a little older. Because I was trying to explain, hey, you can only throw it this high, but my kids don’t have that accuracy at age five.

But I think that’s a fun philosophy, by the way, to change the philosophy of basically no playing inside because we say no … I don’t think parents realize how many times they say no to just don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that. And so I think actually kind of take the opposite of how far can we push bringing fun, playful things into the home, while obviously being sustainable to the home and not just making you’re destroying everything. And we’ve tried to find that, so that then there is kind of controlled things that seem like, oh my goodness, I can’t believe I can scooter in the home, but when you do it, that doesn’t do anything to the home, it doesn’t break anything, it doesn’t mess anything up, so it’s really kind of fun. So those are five ways to help your kids burn energy in the winter.