How to Get Your Kids to Exercise This Summer

Summer vacation used to mean late nights playing flashlight tag with your friends, riding bikes all over your neighborhood and catching balls with your buddies. Times have changed. Fear keeps kids close to home, and both the hot sun and lure of video games keep them inside.

That may mean safety, but it doesn't mean health. "It's so important to keep these kids active in the summer," says Gina Pona, a trainer and owner of Kid-Fit , a company that helps churches and schools set up fitness programs for kids. "Kids really have a tendency to become couch potatoes when school is out, but parents can't let that happen."

Here's a guide to keeping your kids healthy and active this summer.

While TV, video games and computers do have their benefits, too much screen time is detrimental to your kids' health.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under age 2 have no screen time, and that kids older than 2 watch no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming.

"Especially with computers and social media, it seems kids want to be inside more often," says Sherri Brown, fitness director of the Downtown-Marquette YMCA.

"What we've found is that most would choose something else if you offer them an alternative," says Paul Jenkins, a physical therapist at St. Louis Children's Hospital.