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Chapter 22: Kids, Tweens, and Teens: Fun Activities for the Whole Family 343

Involve as many of your tween’s friends as possible (as long as you’ve

followed the preceding rule about making it cool).

Encourage participation in school, church, and community sports

teams.Chances are, you can find a team that’s playing soccer, basketball,

t-ball, football, hockey, and any number of other sports in your area.

Tweens usually have a lot of fun in organized sports, meeting other kids

their age, developing athletic skills, and discovering the ins and outs of

working as a team.

Leaving the car behind

If you have a tween, chances are, you spend a lot of time playing chauffeur

to your child and her friends. An exceptional way to help your child become

healthier is to substitute walking or bike riding for many of these car-intensive

errands. Going to dance lessons? Hop on your bikes and ride the 2 miles to

the studio. Heading to the bookstore or library? Stroll there and back. If you

live too far to comfortably walk or ride, consider packing your bikes into

your car, parking a mile or two away, and pedaling around while you do

errands together.

Whether you’re heading to school, the park, or a friend’s house, use the car

as your last option. When you do drive, park as far away from the building as

possible to give you and your tween a chance to stretch your legs a bit. Be

Making good school lunch choices

Keep this rule in mind: You can alwaysprepare
a more nutritious sack lunch for your child than
she can get at school. The “hot” in “hot lunch”
is not synonymous with “healthy.” It’s just hot.
And kids can make their own lunches, too, start-
ing at around second grade. Make them
together for a while, and then let her take over
for herself.

Even when your child takes her own lunch,
though, she still may be beckoned by incredibly
unhealthy choices in her school’s vending

machines. If this is the case at your child’s

school, get involved and lobby your school dis-

trict to offer only healthy foods to children. Meet

with the principal or superintendent, attend

school-board meetings, start a petition — do

what you have to in order to give your child

healthy food options throughout the day. If the

Los Angeles and New York City public schools

can cut unhealthy foods out of their vending

machines, so can your school.