A Healthy Way to Kill Time
I love pulling out of the driveway headed for a long road trip – there’s such a lovely illusion of abandoning all my work and worries for the duration of the drive (in the case of our Thanksgiving trip, 14 hours). 
But I’m just as over-connected as the next mom, and I usually wind up checking my e-mails in the car. Or searching out apps for my Droid, something I never have time for in day-to-day life. I could easily have spent all 14 hours this way. Unfortunately, Nebraska is not particularly well supplied with 3G networks!
Before I lost coverage, I made a find that will come in handy when my kids are killing time back in St. Louis. Apps for Healthy Kids showcases winning entries in a U.S. Department of Agriculture contest to develop tools and games that teach kids about healthy eating and/or exercising.
Many of them are only for iPhones, so I couldn’t test those out, but they all have links to the authors’ own sites with sample versions that can be played with a browser. (For example, Michelle B. of St. Louis created Fitropolis, where players catch low-fat, low-calorie or low-sugar foods in a bowl.)
Considering that up until now my kids’ favorite apps on my phone are Brickbreaker and a version of memory where the category choices are ice cream, candy, and cookies, these are a refreshing change of pace.
By Amy De La Hunt, Health Blogger for SmartParenting
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Amy De La Hunt is a journalist and editor who lives in the St. Louis metro area and works across the country as a writer, copy editor, project manager and editorial consultant on everything from fiction books to monthly magazines to blog posts. When she's not chauffeuring her teenage sons to activities, Amy is an enthusiastic amateur cook, landscaper, Latin dancer and traveler. Follow Amy on Instagram @amy_in_words
