• Check to see if there's an "indoor park" in your neighborhood. Indoor parks typically feature a large space where young children can run around, navigate on wheeled toys and climb on play equipment. If your neighborhood doesn't have one, consider starting a cooperative program in a church basement, community center or other public space.

• Clear a space somewhere in your house, basement or garage where children can dance, move and play.

• Play "animal" relays. Children travel across the room and back while they act like an animal. You can play it as a guessing game (which animal am I?) or one person can call out different animals for the others to imitate. Kids are great at thinking up different animals (hop like a kangaroo, leap like a frog, slither like a snake, swim like a fish, etc).

• Play "marching band" with pots, pans kitchen utensils, bells, whistles and any other "noisy" items you find around the house.

• If you have a safe, uncluttered area in your basement or garage, allow kids to wheel around on their scooters or roller blades (protective equipment still needed!).

• Encourage older kids to develop an indoor "par course." Encourage them to be creative and feature "stations" for aerobic activity (e.g. Jump roping, running in place for 5 minutes, or aerobic dancing), strength training (canned goods work well as "weights"), and stretching.

• On snowy days, encourage kids to bundle up and go outside! Sledding, sliding, building and other snow play is great exercise and great fun!

Next: Creating indoor play spaces

By Connie Evers, MS, RD. Connie is a registered dietitian, author and child nutrition specialist. Her website is http://nutritionforkids.com