Family winter work-out

With the long winters in Canada, making sure the family gets enough exercise can be difficult.

For several years, we signed the kids up for indoor sports programs with varied success. All too often, they’d spend half the time in long line-ups waiting for their turn to kick a ball once before another five minutes of action-free tedium.

Also, with our kids six years apart, few programs allowed them to sign up together. Finally, we hit upon a solution.

Through the education board, we now rent a school gym for two hours one night a week. The kids are allowed to bring a friend or two each. There, we play soccer, basketball, dodgeball, floor hockey and generally run around the whole time.

The administrative demands of the facilities rentals department were a challenging test of arcane bureaucracy. However, by sticking leech-like to a single employee, we were able to negotiate the chicanery.

Even with the mandatory insurance, it’s still a cheap way to incorporate exercise, family-time, and friends into a great evening out. The kids love it and we’re thinking about renting for two evenings a week next winter.

Wish I’d thought of this years ago.