Cold weather challenges our best intentions to keep kids motivated and fit. Baseball star Jorge Posada and his wife, Laura, share seven ideas for fun winter activities. From their book Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way

We didn’t have winters as kids in Puerto Rico; now that we do, we milk as many opportunities as possible to maximize them. We remember seeing snow for the first time when we were sixteen, and totally freaking out about it as some kind of natural miracle. It is! So, if you live in a place where it snows, get out there and enjoy it. Enjoy the marvel of the whole thing, and be grateful that you, unlike a lot of other people, get to touch it with your very own hands. Remember that winter is all about cozying up to your own warmth and turning inward, a time of reflection and inner heat.

Skiing and Snowboarding
If you live anywhere near the right topography and climate, it is pretty much your duty to introduce skiing and/or snowboarding to your kids. This idea is also great if you are trying to come up with a unique family vacation — one where everyone can be active and on. Snow sports expose children to an entirely different dimension of exercise and fitness and show them an aspect of nature that you can be certain they will appreciate. If you’re not sure whether to go with skiing or snowboarding, let your kids try both, and ask which appeals to them more. Usually a person feels more comfortable with one or the other, but the nice part of the plan is that skiers and snowboarders can all enjoy the same slopes. Maybe Mom and Sis ski, and Dad and the sons snowboard. Or vice versa! The point is that everyone can be together. There are facilities that offer reduced rates on certain days, or special family packages, so don’t let the high cost of this activity scare you and your family from being able to do it. For those who don’t enjoy downhill skiing, there is cross-country, which provides an incredible workout.

Sledding
In Puerto Rico we didn’t have snow, but that certainly did not stop us from sledding down the steep grassy knoll located on the fort in the old city of San Juan. We would throw ourselves down that slope full force, gliding down to the base of the hill with all of the freedom in the world. Sledding is a fully liberating activity that allows one to fully surrender — and also involves the climb back up the hill for the next run down. Make sure everyone is wearing protective gear, especially helmets, but get creative about what everyone can sled on. Garbage can lids work wonders!

Snowshoeing
If the snow is deep enough, snowshoeing is fun, if not funny. Strapped onto one’s feet, those awkward, giant snowshoes work the legs in a comprehensive way and keep everyone cracking up in the process!

Ice-skating
We recommend you learn ice-skating early, when it doesn’t hurt so much to fall on the ice, and when you are less afraid of such a fall. Kids are somehow freer on the ice, so take advantage of that, and expose them to it early. We say it from experience, because when we go ice-skating with our children, we are the ones who are scared and they are the ones cheering us on, which is a nice change. They can motivate you as much as you can motivate them. Don’t worry about genders here, because both can have fun on the ice. Boys may be inclined to play ice hockey as they get older, in which case ice-skating is something they will need to have mastered. Girls, on the other hand, might be inclined to practice figure skating. Either way, getting kids on ice early in life offers them more possibilities, and as they get older they will be more empowered to be selective about the hobbies and activities they choose for themselves. Also, ice-skating instills a sense of confidence, as well as poise.

Snowball Fights
When a fresh snow comes down and graces us with its vast white beauty, there is nothing more fun than engaging in an all-out, no-holds-barred snowball battle with the closest members of your family. Snowball fights, while endlessly mischievous and totally wild, also encourage arm strength, endurance, personal determination, and courage — so get on out into the fresh snow and declare snowball war!

Building Snowmen
Again, if you are lucky enough to get a weekend full of fresh snow, one of the most fun things you can do as a group is to build snow people. Build entire families of them, and really get creative. Make all kinds of funny tableau situations, and really have fun with how you accessorize your frosty friends. This gets all kinds of artful juices flowing but also works the arms and back with all of the digging and patting down of snow.

Snow Angels
This is an old favorite that never bores. Kids love it, and we cannot deny it, adults do just as much. There is nothing like throwing yourself, belly up, into a pile of fresh powder and flapping your extremities with abandon to create perfect angels of snow. Snow angels are little morsels of nostalgia; they are one of those ever-sweet bites of life that stay with you always and make you want to teach them to your kids.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jorge Posada is an all-star catcher for the New York Yankees. Laura Posada is an attorney, a certified personal trainer, and CEO of Laura Posada, LLC. The couple lives with their two children, Jorge Luis and Paulina, in New York City. They are the authors of Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way (Copyright © 2009 by Jorge Posada and Laura Posada).

MORE ARTICLES BY THE AUTHORS

• 7 Ways to Shrink the Sugar in Your Kids’ Diet
• 18 Ways to Turn Your Kids Onto Healthier Eating
• Restaurant Rules 101: Tips for Eating Out as a Family

LEARN MORE

• Read Chapter 1 of Fit Home Team: The Posada Family Guide to Health, Exercise, and Nutrition the Inexpensive and Simple Way
• Watch a video with Jorge and Laura Posada
• Browse more books by Jorge Posada