Family Activities to Exercise the Body and Mind

In tough economic times, it's often the "family entertainment" budget that gets cut first. That's why it's important to seek out new and inexpensive ways for families to spend time and have fun together.

A company called Wild Planet (or call 800-247-6570) has introduced a series of affordable games designed to get families up and moving, laughing and learning. The games are healthful and challenging and offer an active twist on family game night.

For families with kids as young as 3, Smart Step Games such as Animal Scramble exercise the bodies and minds of multiple generations. A giraffe-shaped tagger calls out characteristics of different jungle animals that players need to identify, run to and tag. Family members work together cooperatively to achieve their best shared score. In the process, kids learn how to identify animals in different ways--responding to clues about colors, letters and sounds.

To keep the older kids entertained, there are Hyper Games for families with elementary and middle schoolers. Games such as Hyper Dash and Hyper Jump focus on movement and math skills, instructing players to run to or jump on the answers to addition or subtraction problems.

Hyper Games have head-to-head modes for competitive team play. Parents may outwit the kids, but children often outrun the adults. The games keep track of everyone's score, eliminating any chance of cheating or fighting over who won.

All the Hyper Games and Smart Step Games play upbeat music and call out encouraging phrases to keep the mood lively and light. The games can be played indoors or out, and for kids who want to practice their skills between rounds of family fun, each game offers a single-player mode in addition to team settings.

Preschoolers can get moving with their friends from the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" TV series with the newest Smart Step game, Mickey's Mouse-ke-TAG.

Other new games include 1-2-3 Stomp! and Hyper Blast, in which players stomp their feet to send numbers flying and then run to retrieve the numbers as quickly as possible. After an energetic evening of active family games, parents will be worn out and ready for bed, right along with the little ones.

A popular line of active games exercises the bodies and minds of kids (and parents).