How we get our kids playing outside #LetsPlay

We’re a Let’s Play Ambassador and were compensated for this post. This post is brought to you by Let’s Play, an initiative by Dr Pepper Snapple Group that provides kids and families with the tools, places and inspiration to make active play a daily priority by building and improving playgrounds and donating sports equipment to groups in need. All opinions are my own.

It’s the dog days of summer and the kids just got back from school. They still need to play outside. When they get enough play they sleep better and function at school in a manner that’s much more appropriate for learning. Playing is a win/win, even if the kids don’t see it that way.

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First off, let’s address the elephant in the room. It’s hot, humid and kids would rather be inside in the air-conditioning. That goes for everybody; parents don’t get a heat voucher that encases us in an air-conditioned bubble, which is quite unfortunate actually. I mention that because the best way we’ve found to encourage our kids to get outside and play in the dog days of summer is to go outside and play with them.

Its radical thinking isn’t it?

Our neighbors have a badminton net in their front yard. More times than not the neighborhood kids will yell at me to see if I can play. Occasionally, I’ll take them up on that suggestion and it’ll be me against a gaggle of kids for the first couple of points. After they win a couple of points (and according to their rules…); one or two of the kids will take pity on me and transfer to my side of the net.

If it’s not badminton, then I’ll jump in for a kick or two in soccer, break out the sidewalk chalk, race the oversized cars down the driveway that the boys outgrew or anything to shake up this kid’s world of play.

We’ve got some other tips on how to get the kids outside to play during the dog days of summer at our post over at LetsPlay.com. As a parent, what are your tips for getting the kids outside when they don’t want to go?

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Youth baseball coach dad wins the internet

Did you see that viral video of the karate teacher telling his student that it was OK to cry? For us this video is right up there with it. The brakes are off of the feel train in a real, unscripted moment that I want to be the standard for youth sports.

As a kid I was never too into team sports. As an adult I recognize the values and lessons that they teach. However, as a kid playing them they just weren’t much fun. Now that I’m the parent I’m cognizant of that and direct our kids into the activities that they want to do, with a little bit of advice too. Having said that, neither of our kids are too attracted to group sports at this point in time, but they are quite young.

It would be too easy to show examples on the other side of the parenting and sports equation. This coach and this parent, 100 times more please.

Daddy Mojo-proud to be an Official Blogger for PJ Masks

Children are interesting the way that they discover the next ‘it’ show amongst their peers. For our 6 year old that show is PJ Masks. He came home one day talking about it and all but chastised me for not watching it-yet.  Of course since then we’ve seen many episodes and he’s eager to point out which one is his favorite.  Suffice it to say he is over the moon that we are an Official Blogger for PJ Masks.

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Kids eat for free at Denny’s on Tuesday, 4-10, #DennysDiner

Hey there, we’re a Denny’s Ambassador and were compensated for this post. All thoughts are our own. Summer! Summer is when a kid can be a kid. It means playing in the pool for hours, making up games in the backyard and exercising until you’re called to come inside and eat. For us on Tuesdays it means eating at Denny’s because from 4-10 kids eat for free.

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Hello friends, I have a doughnut

When you’re a parent there are a couple defining moments for your children. I don’t mean graduation from school, learning how to ride a bike or other benchmark happenings. Just like how an inside joke is sometimes funnier than the practiced classic gag, the offhand things that your children do that really expresses their personality can be the thing that parent remember forever. That happened to us the other week.

A simple trip to the supermarket led to a new catchphrase for our family, “Hello friends, I have a doughnut” and what it can teach us all.

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My Dinner with Ellio’s

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Life of Dad and Dr. Oetker USA LLC. I have received compensation for this post; however, all opinions stated are my own. The 80’s were packed with great, innovative films. Back then, as it is today, I appreciated all sorts of films. One of those films I appreciated was My Dinner With Andre. This is a film that consists entirely of a conversation between Vizzini and some other guy and may not be the top choice for a 15-year-old movie fan, but I was a devotee nonetheless. You can’t thoroughly enjoy a movie without a great snack, and back then, Ellio’s frozen pizza was a go-to snack or meal for lots of kids my age. We may not have had the same movie tastes, but our preference for pizza was pretty consistent.

Nostalgia is a funny thing. Some of the films that I liked are still in my library today. The Evil Dead, Brazil, After Hours, Manhunter and several others are films that I’ll watch when I have the time. Like those classic films, Ellio’s frozen pizza is still in our freezer rotation, but for different reasons.

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Parent Hacks, the online parent cheat sheet is now a go-to book

Parent Hacks is a genius website that parents probably don’t use enough. I say that from experience because I don’t use it, despite the fact that most of their tips are super helpful. Using ‘hack’ as a suffix is common now and has watered down how effective some of the hacks can actually be. Because of that, some folks may think of a ‘hack’ as half measured or low brow approach to fixing something.

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Pull-Ups Potty Partnership #BPopEvents toilet training 101

As a stay at home dad I’m thankful for the little things. For our second child I’m very thankful because potty training him was relatively easy. Having said that, time heals all wounds and he’s been potty trained since he was three and a half. In our family time machine I’m sure that it was fraught with dashes to the potty, accidents and wet pants. Huggies has a new program (and it’s free!)to help you allow your child to be potty trained more readily by working with the strengths of your individual child.

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