Don’t let your kids burnout too soon.  While it is great to encourage your children to get involved in sports, don’t let sports to take over their lives or yours. 

More and more it is common for a young teenager to get burnt out from his/her sport.  This is how it happens—a child falls in love with a sport and wants to be the next phenom.  Actually, it tends to be their parents who push them to be the next A-Rod, Tiger Woods, or Michael Phelps. 

Of course in order to become the best, an athlete must practice, practice, practice.  Practice makes perfect, right?  Wrong.  Practicing too much and playing in competitions too often is the root of the problem.  Although a kid may love a sport, it can become problematic when everything that child does revolves around a single sport. 

We suggest encouraging your child to get involved in a number of sports at a young age.  They shouldn’t limit themselves before they are given a chance to explore all their options.  Sure there is nothing wrong to hope for greatness in your child and push them to a point.  However, when going to that select soccer practice or tennis tournament becomes more of a job than a passion, it may be time to revaluate your goals.

"With more kids than ever in organized sports, an estimated 30 million of them through high school, Metzl and other experts in sports medicine and youth athletics say they are increasingly concerned about the pressures put on some children to excel.  Not only are these youngsters at risk for emotional burnout, they may also develop injuries that plague them for a lifetime," writes Jacqueline Stenson, an MSNBC contributor. 

The rest of the article, titled "Pushing too hard too young" is featured here.  Although the article was published four years ago, the information is just as relevant today.

Spending time in the kitchen, like sports, has always been a great way for families to strengthen relationships. Paula Deen, queen of the Food Network, who works with her sons, has a cookbook for kids coming out and we want to pass it along as another way of spending time with your kids doing healthy things. 

"Paula Deen's My First Cookbook is a hardcover, spiral-bound collection of recipes and food safety instruction that should be just the thing to bring parents and children together in the kitchen for more than just dinner.

With delightful illustrations by Susan Mitchell, Deen and Martha Nesbit offer up a primer of kitchen utensils and cooking terms with simple explanations to prepare little chefs for their first cooking assignments, making it clear early on and throughout the rest of the book that there are certain tasks that should be delegated to an adult."

Read the full book review by RJ Carter here. While the review doesn't specifically talk about 'healthy' foods, it is clear that teaching kids to cook fresh foods instead of buying packaged and processed and fast, is a good first step. Moreover, you may uncover a future Rachel Ray, Emeril Lagasse, or Martha Stewart. Have fun in the kitchen!