As I write this post, my 8-year-old kid is toughing it out on an obstacle course at his martial arts class. In a few minutes, he will be in front of me practicing his moves and then later, sparring. “I love karate,” he told me last week as we were driving home from his once-a-week [...]

We attended the school carnival this past weekend, and, I must say, I had a lot of fun. Not that I did anything, really, except watch my kids, but that’s the thrill for me — watching my boys have a great time. It was also pretty cool to check out the clever stops that kept [...]

If your kids are involved in team sports, you know how hectic schedules can become while juggling practices and games and homework and family dinners and bedtimes. Sometimes it all feels like too much, yet the rewards of getting your kiddos involved in organized athletic programs are plentiful. There’s the whole active thing — gotta [...]

Sun shining. Breezy winds. Shorts and t-shirts on a mid-February day. Beautiful. And the kids just want to hang inside watching TV and plugging into games galore. You know the drill, right? Yea, me, too! Today, instead of letting boys hibernate inside, the dad and I forced them into the great outdoors. To the backyard [...]

You might not be the craftiest person in town, but here’s one artsy idea you can surely implement. Just stock your kiddos with pipe cleaners, pom-poms, felt, foam, glue, and more, and tell them to create animals and aliens and anything their little hearts so desire. Here’s where you come in: just hot glue gun [...]

I’ve long heard about how P90X is a great, body-transforming fitness program, but for years and years, I just never jumped on board — until now. Well, yesterday, to be exact, followed by a repeat today. I started with Yoga X (my mom swears by it), and I really like it. I mean, it was [...]

The holidays never end. Seems once Halloween hits, it’s one right after the other, and, now, Valentine’s Day is on the horizon. If you’ve got school kids, that means parties and paper cards and treats. If you don’t have school kids, you  might still want to plan something special for your at-home kiddos, and just [...]

There’s this really great program spreading through schools across the country, and it’s guaranteed to improve students’ overall fitness, energy levels, moods, and more. It’s called the Morning Mile, and if it’s not up and running at your kids’ schools, you should be the one to get the ball rolling. It’s easy to sign up, [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

New Year’s Eve isn’t all late nights, drunken parties, and lots of smooching. OK, well, there is a lot of that, but there are family-friendly options for ringing in 2012, too, and MapQuest is starting to roll out for young and old the hot spots across the U.S. and abroad. There’s Florida, and, specifically, Orlando, [...]