Fun After-School Snack and Exercises for Kids | Raise Healthy Kids

With school time starting back up, we need to be thinking of ways to transition from your school routine to a home routine, get those wiggles out after sitting most of the day and work to raise healthy kids. A great way we have accomplished this is with our after-school routine—a fun after-school snack and “cheesy” exercises for kids!

 

We are excited to partner again with Frigo^® Cheese Heads^® to inspire kids to eat healthy and exercise.

 

Recently, we discovered that our store sells a Frigo^® Cheese Heads^® Variety Pack that has their String Cheese, Colby Jack and Swirls^® all inside. Since my boys have different tastes in cheese, this has been the perfect solution for us and is perfectly fun for our after school routine. (Since we homeschool, we will sometimes do this healthy kids’ activity at lunch time instead and incorporate it into our gym class.)

 

 

This fun Frigo^® Cheese Heads^® after school snack and exercise for kids activity is great for indoors or out. Since the weather has been pretty nice the past few days, we’ve been trying to take our kids exercises outside. The String Cheese is fully sealed, so I had the boys set them down in front of them to read which exercises they were supposed to do. When the weather isn’t so nice, we will exercise in an open area of the house (somewhere with lots of wiggle room). The exercises should only take a few minutes.

 

Fun After-School Snack and Exercises for Kids | Raise Healthy Kids

 

 

To be honest, I was surprised just how much my boys were motivated by String Cheese. They were so excited to do their cheesy exercises and celebrate with Frigo^® Cheese Heads^®.

As a busy parent, I know just how hard it is to fit family time and exercise time into an already-packed schedule. To solve this problem, I jumped right in there and got a mini workout in with them. I helped show the kids how to do the exercises, which got us all up and moving, learning and spending quality time together. There were lots of giggles, and we were all happy for our water and snack afterwards.

Make the daily exercise a surprise to all of you by pre-writing or attaching the exercise routines to the backs of the String Cheese wrappers, then keep the exercises facing away from view. Let your child(ren) choose one stick, then flip it over to reveal what exercise(s) to try today!

 

Mom, I know what it’s like to be too busy to fit a “mom workout” into your routine; this easy beginner strength training routine only takes 10 minutes!

 

Get Started With Your New After-School Routine!

 

Depending on your resources and exercise routines, there are a few different ways you can set these String Cheese Exercise Stations up:
 

Setting Up Your String Cheese Exercise Routine Sticks

 

• Write with a permanent marker directly on the packaging
• Print a one-line exercise routine on a piece of paper, cut the thin strip out and tape it to the String Cheese package
• Print a more complete exercise routine on a piece of paper and cut it into a wider strip then wrap it around the String Cheese package like a sleeve; write something like “Open for today’s exercise routine” on the outside

 

 

Setting Up Your After School String Cheese Snack Station

 

• Keep the cheese in a specific drawer or basket in the refrigerator, exercise-routine side down, and have your child choose directly from there at snack time
• Place your cheese sticks in a cup or mason jar, exercise routine side on the back, along with water and a healthy snack addition like an apple or some carrot sticks
• Prepare little grab bags with your full after-school snack inside and let your child choose one at random, so the whole snack is a surprise

 

 

Planning Your Exercises

 

Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for—the exercises for kids. You can create the routines any way you want, but we decided to make ours “cheesy” and fun by doing themed exercises. Some of these exercises are meant to encourage healthy living in other aspects of life (such as cooking, cleaning or recycling), while others are just meant to be silly and enjoyable.

You may wish to include generic exercises that the kids already know on yours, but I will share our exercises with you, as well. Check out our full exercise explanations, and watch the video of my kids helping to demonstrate them.

Choose what is best for your family and the ages of your kids. Remember, some of these may be challenging, so it’s okay if they don’t do them completely correctly. The main goal is to get them moving, keep them active and get some of those wiggles out. You can add one to three exercises. Have them repeat the full set of exercises in order over and over or each individual exercise multiple times before moving to the next one.

 

 

If you are doing multiple exercises, it is a good idea to choose one or two that are more of a stretch first, since stretching before exercising is important.
 
Example of repeating the full set:

• Touch your toes then reach up and pick four apples; repeat 5 times

 
Example of individual exercises:

• Jumping Jacks 10x (We call these “Pencil Triangles”)
• “Catch the Football” 10x per side
• “Ants in My Pants” Wiggles for 10 seconds

 

 

Here’s another fun after-school treat—String Cheese Pencil Stubs!

 

Our Cheesy Exercises

 
Remember, these below are described in more detail as well as shown in a video on my post here. You can do them just like we do them, or you can create your own with these as inspiration! Practice and learn each exercise using the instructions and videos until you are able to remember them on your own. Most are fairly self-explanatory, so you can figure them out pretty quickly.
 

• Jump Like a Kangaroo
• Jump Like a Frog
• Jump Like a Bunny
• Flamingo Jump
• Pencil Triangles
• Treadmill Jog
• Walk Like a Crab
• Crawl Like a Bear
• Firefighter Ladder Climb
• Sit on a Chair
• Washing Machine Twist (or The Blender)
• Apple Pickers
• Check Out My Muscles
• Sweep the Floor
• Catch the Football
• Ride a Bike on the Ceiling
• Ants in My Pants
• Caterpillar Butterfly Stretch
• Scissor Shuffle
• Skipping Rocks
• Recycle the Paper
• Car Wash
• Move the Laundry
• Vacuum the Floor
• Pick Up Toys
• Toe Touch
• Pitch the Hay
• Shovel the Snow
• I Dunnos
• This Big!
• Bake a Cake
• Grab a Star
• Swing Seats
• Ankle-B-Cs
• Snorkelers
• Toss the Pizza Dough
• Stir the Dough/Stir the Batter

 

 

There are so many other simple and well-known exercises you can try, as well, and you can even add yoga poses with it! Try lunges, push-ups, cherry pickers, bridge pose and cobra pose. Have your kids help think of other fun exercises (or fun names to common exercises) and add them to your routine.
 

Themed Routines

 
As mentioned above, we enjoy doing some themed sets. Some that we tried were “Clean Up Time,” “Rock, Paper, Scissors” and “In the Kitchen.” Here are samples of the three:
 
“Clean Up Time”

• “Sweep the Floor” 10x (10 sets)
• “Move the Laundry” 5x
• “Vacuum the Floor” 10x per side

 
“Rock, Paper, Scissors”

• “Skipping Rocks” 10x per side
• “Recycle the Paper” 5x
• “Scissors Shuffle” 5 sets of 4 steps (or whatever will fit your space)

 
“In the Kitchen”

• “Toss the Pizza Dough” 10x
• “Bake a Cake” 5x
• “Stir the Batter” 10x

 

After-School Snack Time!

 

Now that your work is through and the wiggles are wiggled out, celebrate with a healthy snack. We had Frigo^® Cheese Heads^® String Cheese, Colby Cheese and Swirls^® along with an apple and some fresh water.

Take this opportunity to teach your kids about taking care of their bodies and making healthy choices, from healthy snacks to exercise.

 

 

Read also: Tabletop Beach Volleyball Snack and Activity and Kid Fashion | How to Layer Outfits for Back to School
 

Check out all of our String Cheese snacks and activities for all year long!

 

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