Remember the slap of a jump rope against pavement? The breathless excitement of hopscotch? Running for the pure joy of it, with no destination in mind?

If you're at least 25 years old, no doubt you played these popular 'street games' at school during recess, and outside at home on endless summer afternoons. Sadly, children today are missing out on these wonderful activities. In this age of video games and computers, more and more kids are staying homebound.

"The schoolyard games have been lost. Kids don't know how to play four-square, a lot of people don't know how to play hopscotch," says Silken Laumann, who over the next couple of weeks will be conducting sessions across the country instructing parents on the rules of the games most of them played as children.

The former Olympian, whose book Child's Play is being released today, says many of these games are being lost in the hectic scramble of over-protective, hyper-scheduled, time-crunched parenting.

"We've got our children wrapped in bubble wrap and when you're in bubble wrap, you can't play very much. You don't get hurt, but you don't really have fun either," she said in an interview.

Even worse, exercise is often viewed as 'hard,' or even as a punishment. You didn't realize it then, but all that fun you had as a child was also keeping you in shape and protecting you from things like childhood obesity. With obesity and diabetes surging among the young, it's time to stop viewing exercise as a chore, and bring back the fun.

Although the article concerns children, don't forget that this works for adults, too. Stop viewing exercise as a chore, as one more thing to cross off your to-do list. refamiliarize yourself with jump rope rhymes and skip away. Play hopscotch with your children. Run wild. It's time to make taking care of ourselves fun again.

(Photo Source: Eyestorm)