YMCA Healthy Kids Day

Each year I have seen this event and really love to attend the event that the Tampa YMCA puts on at Curtis Hixon Park in Tampa, Florida. We are members of the YMCA and we love their programs, the adult classes, their youth sports, the staff…everything!

We hope that you will find a YMCA Healthy Kids Day in your town and come out to participate. Click here for a listing of events from the YMCA.

And if your in Tampa, Florida and like these kinds of events, we have one EACH MONTH, the 1st Tuesday of the month called “Playin’ In The Park” that promotes healthy kids and families, has free activities for kids, healthy snacks for all and gets kids to play outside!

Join us for our next event on Tuesday, May 1st at Cutris Hixon Park from 2pm-7pm!

As a We Can! Community Partner, one of the Fit Kids Playground missions is promote reducing screen time among families. This seems like a simple concept, but as parents, we struggle with knowing how much is too much, when to say when and with technology becoming more rapidly integrated into homework, the lines can easily become blurred. And this week, April 30th, actually kicks off National Screen Free Week! Will your family be participating?

Fit Kids is launching a series of giveaways each month that might help you push away the screen and get you and your kids out of the house! Really simple. Turn off the TV, the computer, the video games first. Then go do something! Anything! Go outside. Play a board game. Talk with your kids. Go to a museum. Turn on some music. Color. If you can help set an example, all the best!

Raising a family can be expensive so we hope our giveaways might be a special treat to help you do something fun with the kiddos for an afternoon.

Our first Push Away The Screen Giveaway is from Disney on Ice! They are coming to the Tampa Bay Times Forum on May 17th -20th.

ENTRY RULES

• This giveaway will require you to enter by leaving a comment on this post and answering the question, “How do you reduce the screen time in your house?”
• Based on the number of comments, we will use random.org to determine a winner.
• Winner will be notified via e-mail on
• Giveaway ends on May 12th, 2012 at 12:00am.

DISCOUNT CODE

If you are looking to purchase tickets, here is a discount code for the shows! Get tickets for just $13 with code MOMDD. The offer is valid for these performances: May 18 at 7 p.m., May 19 at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., and May 20 at 5 p.m.. Tickets can be purchased at the Tampa Bay Times Forum ticket office or ticketmaster.com.

About: Disney on Ice presents Dare to Dream!

Get tangled up in the newest thrilling show to hit the ice, Disney On Ice presents Dare to Dream. Experience Disney’s hilarious hair-raising escapade, Tangled; as Rapunzel, her unlikely companion, Flynn, and Maximus, embark on an uproarious journey that takes adventure to new lengths! Boogie to the beat of the bayou with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen from The Princess and the Frog, in a magical, musical journey that all begins with a fateful kiss. And fanciful dreams become reality as Cinderella meets her Prince Charming, with a glass slipper fit for an unforgettable fantasy come true. All your favorite princesses take to the ice in a spectacular finale at the ultimate Disney Princess event of a lifetime! Experience the beauty, sparkle, and spirit when Disney On Ice presents Dare to Dream comes to your hometown!

Ticketmaster Link To Purchase Tickets

http://www.ticketmaster.com/search?tm_link=tm_header_search&user_input=&q=Dare+to+Dream&search.x=0&search.y=0

Please visit our Terms and Conditions page for our giveaways policies.

Join your local food movement at The Roosevelt 2.0 for an all-star local chef dinner, featuring some of our regions very best farmers, and get inspired by Joel’s mission to change the way we feed the world.

Thursday, April 19th
6:30pm-10:30pm
The Roosevelt 2.0 (Ybor City)

For more event information click here!

The 4 course dinner will start at 6:30, local wine will be served with dinner. After dinner Joel will give a one-hour talk about sustainable farming and his view of the future of food. We will be having a book signing after the talk so be sure to order your books too!

Tickets available at: https://www.wepay.com/events/salatin-on-the-suncoast

This is an event you won’t want to miss! Meet the farmer featured in the films, Food Inc.,Fresh, American Meat, hear his message, get inspired and get first dibs on his latest book “Folks, This Ain’t Normal”. Join TUFF (Tampa’s Urban Food Forum), Birdhouse, and Suncoast Food Alliance and celebrate real food and meet your “local Joel’s”.

In 1961, William and Lucille Salatin moved their young family to Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, purchasing the most worn-out, eroded, abused farm in the area near Staunton. Using nature as a pattern, they and their children began the healing and innovation that now supports three generations.

Disregarding conventional wisdom, the Salatins planted trees, built huge compost piles, dug ponds, moved cows daily with portable electric fencing, and invented portable sheltering systems to produce all their animals on perennial prairie polycultures.

Today the farm arguably represents America’s premier non-industrial food production oasis. Believing that the Creator’s design is still the best pattern for the biological world, the Salatin family invites like-minded folks to join in the farm’s mission: to develop emotionally, economically, environmentally enhancing agricultural enterprises and facilitate their duplication throughout the world.

The Salatins continue to refine their models to push environmentally-friendly farming practices toward new levels of expertise.

A great article about Joel was recently in TIME Magazine. Get to know who you will meet in person!

Real Kids. Real Change. Really Simple.

This is why we play.

1. We like to play outside. It is often the simplistic elements that we bring to events, such as hula hoops, jump ropes, soccer balls, footballs, bubbles and music, that entertain the kids so much! It’s really simple. No big “jumpies.” No mechanical rides. No power necessary. Free play is what we like best!

2. Getting creative with the toys you have. Why not use the hula hoops to create a game or the cones to create and course. Play feeds into creativity. We love seeing the kids play in the park with our toys. They stay for hours. They run. Their parents run. Everyone always leaves with a smile.

3. Having fun is why we play. Playtime with your kids is something that is great for both parties. Kids love to play with Mom, Dad, brother, sister, a friend. Why? Because they want to have fun, they LOVE to see you smile, and your smile makes them smile and that makes for happy kids.

4. It’s fun exercise. When kids play outside and are having fun, they often don’t realize that time has flown by! That 60- minute a day rule doesn’t apply because they will usually surpass it by an extra hour with out even realizing it! Getting kids to play outside shouldn’t have to be work. Turn off that TV! Pretend it’s broken! It’s worth a shot to get your kids in a play outside. They won’t realize what their missing because they will be having so much fun playing!

We hope you will come play with us sometime this summer! If you live in Tampa,FL or anywhere near by, check out what goes on at Curtis Hixon Park each first Tuesday of the month (running through August 2012).

Fit Kids Playground Receives We Can!® Assistance Award to Help Children in Tampa Bay Maintain a Healthy Weight

Tampa, FL (January 31, 2012)—To help address the growing epidemic of childhood obesity, Fit Kids Playground has received an assistance award from the We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition)® childhood obesity prevention program. Developed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), We Can! supports local efforts to help children and families maintain an active lifestyle and a healthy weight.

Childhood obesity is a public health crisis in the United States. In the past ten years, the prevalence of obesity in the state of Florida has increased from 18.6 percent to 25.9 percent of the population. Also, in the past year, the percentage of children in poverty increased from 18.3 percent to 21.0 percent of people under age 18. These statistics show that more than ever, the children in the Tampa Bay area need our help. Families are in desperate need of simple, inexpensive ways to help them develop healthy habits for their children. Educating local residents about resources within the community that can help families live healthier lives will help children learn techniques that can break the cycle of obesity. (Source: AmericasHealthRatings.org)

Fit Kids Playground has been teaching parents and caregivers how to get the entire family to eat right, move more and spend less time in front of the screen since they joined the We Can! movement in 2009.

“We are excited to be able to make a difference here in Tampa Bay,” said Marisa Langford, Founder of Fit Kids Playground. “This grant will allow us to implement programs and classes for both children and parents that will teach them easy ways to eat better and exercise more.”
Fit Kids Playground also received a 2011 We Can! Assistance Award and used the funds to launch “Playin’ In The Park” a free community event held the first Tuesday of every month at Curtis Hixon Park. These events will run March 2012 through August 2012 and will create awareness about healthy eating habits for children and parents and increase physical activity through free play in the city parks. These events were co-produced with the Downtown Tampa Partnership. They will happen each first Tuesday of the month and will run from 2pm-7pm at Curtis Hixon Park.

Fit Kids Playground is one of 18 registered We Can! community sites across the country to receive community assistance support of up to $10,000 to implement programs.

The overall objectives of this assistance program are to help We Can! community sites:

• Implement We Can!’s parent and/or youth curricula;
• Build organizational and/or community capacity to implement We Can! curricula;
• Expand existing community health efforts, programs, events, or activities to include We Can! messages and materials; and
• Are sustainable after the funding period ends.

Fit Kids Playground aims to create an educational campaign to be executed in Tampa, Florida entitled “Real Kids. Real Change. Really Simple.” The mission of all the programs and the curricula implemented within the campaign is to reach REAL kids and help them to CHANGE through SIMPLE lessons. Ultimately, we want to inspire them to become more invested in their own health. By implementing the We Can! curricula in a variety of locations and partnering with creative educational outlets throughout the Tampa Bay community, Fit Kids Playground will reach a very diverse audiences that would be considered high-risk for childhood obesity. Prevention is the key and these educational programs will are instrumental in successfully changing the behaviors among parents and children.

Currently, partners that will be assisting Fit Kids Playground implement the “Real Kids. Real Change. Really Simple.” campaign are The Downtown Tampa Partnership, REALM, Intelligent Gourmet, Hillsborough County Library System, Metropolitan Ministries, Tampa Bay Markets, Magic 94.9, Harbour Island Athletic Club, TUFF (Tampa Urban Food Forum), Learning Gate Community School and Truck Farm Tampa. Without the support of these organizations and businesses, this grant would not be made possible.

Launched in 2005 by NIH, the We Can! program provides science-based strategies and resources for parents, caregivers and communities to help youth ages 8–13 stay at a healthy weight by improving nutrition, increasing physical activity and reducing screen time.
The 18 sites that received funding under the 2012 We Can! Assistance Program include:

• Alice Hyde Medical Center, NY
• Annette Island Service Unit, AK
• Cobb & Douglas Public Health, GA
• Colorado Black Health Collaborative, CO
• ENEMY Swim Day School, SD
• Feeding South Florida, FL
• Fit Kids Playground, FL
• Gary Comer College Prep, IN
• Healthy Heart Community Prevention Project, LA
• Indian River County Health Department, FL
• Inlet View Elementary School, AK
• Knoxville Area Coalition on Childhood Obesity, TN
• Mercy Medical Center, IA
• Neighborhood HealthSource, MN
• St. James-Santee Family Health Center, Inc., SC
• United Health Services, NY
• Westside Health Authority, IL
• 6KidsNFit, FL

For more information about We Can!: http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov.
For more information about Fit Kids Playground: FitKidsPlayground.com

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Fit Kids Playground, Real Kids. Real Change. Really Simple.

We Can!® is a science-based national education program developed by NIH—a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—to help children ages 8–13 stay at a healthy weight through improving food choices, increasing physical activity, and reducing screen time. The program offers flexible, easy-to-implement resources complete with partnership ideas and outreach opportunities to unite community organizations. Four of the National Institutes of Health have combined their unique resources and activities to create We Can!: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and the National Cancer Institute. For more information, visit http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov or call toll-free 866-35-WE CAN (866-359-3226).

Listen up Tampa!

Your child’s school can win $100,000 for physical activity programs! In February, PHA honorary chair First Lady Michelle Obama kicked off a nationwide competition to find the best school programs and technology ideas that increase physical activity for kids. In a commitment with PHA, ChildObesity180 launched the new initiative, “Active Schools Acceleration Project” (ASAP) with a video from the First Lady. The ASAP competition will award a total of $500,000 in prizes, with individual awards of up to $100,000.

Click here to have your school apply!!!

We are excited to also announce the plans to participate in with Jamie Oliver on their GLOBAL Food Revolution Day, May 19th! We will be partnering with Tampa Bay Markets to make this happen and will be looking for some “revolutionaries” to be involved with us! Are you interested? To get involved, let us know! We know you are out there and can help us make a difference! We want you to be a part of this event!

Sign up to be a Food Revolution Day Ambassador

Food Revolution on Twitter

Join the conversation on Twitter with @FitKidsTampa : #fitkids

We are excited to announce that on March 6th the Tampa Bay Lightning will be joining us at Fit Kids Playground “Playin’ In The Park” at Curtis Hixon Park from 2pm-7pm! Come on out and see their mobile community experience!

And a little bit about how they are supporting kids in the Tampa Bay area…Check out their kids camps and clinics! All Fit Kids should try new things! So if you haven’t laced up a pair of ice skates yet, maybe you could give it a try! We love trying new things!

SUMMER YOUTH HOCKEY CAMPS

YOUTH HOCKEY CLINICS

YOUTH HOCKEY CAMP

Join the conversation on Twitter #BETHETHUNDER

Go Bolts!

FACT: Hillsborough County leads the nation in drowning deaths of children under the age of 4. ALARMING!

I wanted to share a few of my favorite places in the Tampa Bay area to cool off, learn how to swim, or just enjoy the h2O for the afternoon with the kids and friends for the summer!

Bob Sierra YMCA- Northdale
WHY I call this the “Adventure Island of Suburbia” Because going to the pool should be fun and the Bob Sierra’s YMCA Youth and Family Center makes it fun for even your littlest ones! It also should be something you can quickly pack up, leave the house and head over to without much thought! (I LOVE Adventure Island, but with 3 kids in tow, I just can’t do it all the time!) This is the perfect alternative! They not only have an awesome area for the littlest of walkers, but also a larger open pool that has slides your child can go down (but they DO have to pass a swim test and also be over the age of 5.) You have full access to a patio for lunch, showers (we ALWAYS leave clean) and a great staff of life guards that is even watching the littlest ones in the 6 inches of water. Super safe!
A membership is required, but they DO allow families to “try” out the facility a couple of times. So even if your not a member (yet) check this place out for an afternoon!

Seal Swim School
WHY Having 3 kids, the youngest being 2, I have used Seal Swim School personally for all my Mom and tot swimming lessons. My 7 year old competes in youth triathlons and my daughter at 6 is a super strong swimmer too! I love their lessons, facility and instructors for all kinds of reasons! The facility we frequent is in Lutz (they have 3 other locations in the Bay area too!) They are super clean, super warm and they really know how to interact with the children to make them WANT to swim and learn survival skills. I feel that the way they teach the children the steps to help themselves get out of a BAD situation also goes along with building their confidence about swimming underwater and feeling safe when they are in the water.

Sulphur Springs Pool and Park
$4, $2 for children and seniors, $25 for seasonal swim pass (recreation card required), $75 seasonal family swim pass (recreation card required). Swimming lessons are forming for March and early summer. Contact 813-931-2156 for more information.

ISR (Now available at The Interbay Glover YMCA)
WHY Beginning this month, the Y will pilot the Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) program at the South Tampa Y. ISR is a water survival program that trains children as young as 6 months to float, rest, breathe and swim to the wall. The six-week program is taught five days a week for just 10 minutes a day by certified ISR instructors.

The South Tampa Y’s pilot program will be offered to children, ages 6 to 36 months, of first responders, such as firefighters and police officers. Most of these first responders have witnessed the devastating impact accidental drownings have on families.

After the pilot program runs at South Tampa, the Y will expand pilot programs to the Campo Family Y and the New Tampa Family Y.

For more information about the ISR program, please contact Adam Klutts at 813.839.0210.

Adventure Island
WHY A Tampa landmark! Opens March 10th, 2012! Adventure Island’s 30 acres provide water-soaked excitement for guests of all ages. I have personally had passes for my family since my son was 4. It’s a great fun place to go with the kids and run around to cool down. They have little splash pads with shallow water for preschoolers and babies. They have a intermediate play area for kids ages, 5-13 and then of course, the “rides” for those who are tall enough. There is also a pool that we swim in together too! The sand/ beach area is always a fun area to play in too!

We bring a cooler (see restrictions) and they also offer a dining meal plan too. From personal experience, the annual pass is the way to hit this park. We frequent it enough to get our moneys worth during the summertime. I come prepared with snacks, change of clothes, sunscreen and sand toys. Parking is free with your pass too.

Hyde Park Fountains at Kate Jackson Park
A great place to go to cool off under small fountains. Recommended for ages 0-4. Open seasonally May through October.

Curtis Hixon Park Downtown Tampa (In front of Glazer Children’s Museum)
WHY Another fountain in Tampa Bay that is a great place to bring kids to cool off! These fountains run seasonally and are fun for kids of ALL ages. Located in the heart of Downtown Tampa, you will enjoy all the scenery while cooling off after playtime at the playground.

Harbour Island Athletic Club
WHY Unless you live in South Tampa, you might not know about this AMAZING club! It is beautiful! Whether you are looking for professional instruction, learn to swim options or simply lap swimming you will surely enjoy our swimming complex. If you are not a member, which you must be to use the facility, you can try them out for 3 days! So why not take them up on it! It could be the best 3 days of your summer with the kids cooling down in pool! I am always up for a change of pace! http://www.harbourislandathleticclub.com/Contact_/Join_the_Club.aspx

Little Flipper Swim School
WHY LaFleur’s Little Flipper Swim School is designed with younger children in mind. During the formative years kids need to have an opportunity to swim “year round”. LaFleur’s has a state of the art facility and program for them (right here in Tampa at Anderson and Linebaugh near the Veteran’s Expressway). Check their website for details regarding pricing and schedule.

Photo: Courtesy of Marisa Langford.

Today is one of the best kids races in Tampa and Fit Kids Playground is proud to support it! My daughter raced last year and loved it! Great facility, run well, extremely organized and best of all, all the kids participating will cross the finish line and get a metal. We love races that give confidence to our budding fit kids!

Click here for event details for today. There is onsite registration if you haven’t already taken advantage of their FREE registration prior to today.