Get active at Kohl Children's Museum
Cold weather's starting to kick in. Cabin fever can't be far behind. Luckily, we have one of the country's top boredom busters in our own backyard. The Early Childhood Education Zone released its list of the top 25 children's museums in the country. Who came in at number seven? Glenview's own Kohl Children's Museum.
Their newest exhibit, “Run! Jump! Fly! Adventures in Action,” comes at the perfect time. When it's too cold to exercise outside, the Kohl Children's Museum has come to our rescue with an interactive exhibit that lets kids and parents discover the fun of exercising indoors. My 7-year-old daughter and I had a blast trying out the surf and snowboard simulator and got a kick out of the Kung Fu Forest.
This new exhibit is part of the museum's “Fitness For All” program.
“Childhood obesity has more than doubled in just 30 years, to nearly 18 percent of all children ages 6-1. There is a direct connection to these children being far more at risk later in life for heart disease, diabetes, and several forms of cancer,” says Sheridan Turner, president and CEO of Kohl Children's Museum. “While the museum itself doesn't research childhood obesity, we do create programs in direct response to the alarming facts distributed by the Centers for Disease Control.”
By sampling activities in a noncompetitive environment, Kohl Children's Museum hopes to jump-start kids' interest in a new physical activity. “We hope that whatever children encounter in the Museum they'll try to replicate at home,” says Turner. “We intentionally design many of our programs so that families can easily mimic the activities or put their own spin on them.” Ready to exercise your options? Here they are:
Run! Jump! Fly! Exhibit activities
• Surfing and Snowboarding: Kids and adults will be stoked about shredding on this fun simulator. Choose a balance board and get ready to rip through a two-minute video sequence that takes riders gliding through pine trees and past lakes as they snowboard down a mountain. Then it's time to hang 10 and go surfing. Don't worry about wiping out. It's all virtual, with the motion sensor board being just a few inches off the ground. Cowabunga!
• Kung Fu Forest: Practice kung fu animal stances inspired by the rooster, snake and the tiger.
• Climbing Canyon: Kids of varying skill and ability levels can grip handholds and footholds to make their way across a climbing canyon.
• Flycycle Sky: The ingenious engineers behind this exhibit have taken your standard stationary bike and turned into a fun flying contraption. Every few rotations of the wheels, a star lights up in the sky.
• Yoga Station: Try out the tree pose and the cat stretch, as well as learn the origins of yoga.
• Dance Club: Hip-hop, ballet, salsa — kids get to choose how they want to bust a move and get their heart pumping.
After sampling the activities, kids can take home a “fitness tracker” — a tally sheet where they write down how much physical activity they get throughout the week. The goal is to get an hour of exercise every day. “Diversify your activities so that it doesn't become a chore: swim one day, jog around the playground together, go on a nature hike to collect leaves,” advises Turner. “Find activities you can do as a family unit. Especially with young children, parents are the first and best role models of a healthy lifestyle. Engage children in physical activities at a very young age so that it becomes part of their natural lifestyle growing up.”