With childhood obesity rates climbing every year, parents have to get creative if they want their kids to get off the couch. One way to encourage activity is to design a decorative concrete driveway that incorporates active games in it. Here are some ideas for you to consider:

1. Sport court

Instead of decorating your driveway with spirals, geometric patterns or whatever shapes you like best, turn your concrete driveway into a virtual sports court. A professional concrete stamper can turn your driveway into a street hockey field, a basketball court or a place to play whatever sport your kids like the best.

2. School yard games

Alternatively, rather than turning your driveway into a sport court, create a series of small areas where your kids can play school yard games. The options vary, but you can design your concrete with squares for foursquare, paths for hopscotch or whatever other games you think your kids would enjoy.

3. Dice and movement games

For something novel that will appeal to your kids and the neighbourhood kids, consider turning your entire driveway into a dice and movement game. Simply hire someone to permanently decorate the concrete with a long, winding path made up of a series of squares.

On each square, print half of a maths problem such as +3 or -5. To play, have your kids roll a dice and proceed that number of squares. When they reach their destination square, they announce the maths problem and move accordingly.

For example, if they roll a six and land on a "+6", they say 6+6=12, and they move a total of 12 squares. The first person to reach the end of your driveway, wins.

4. Magical paths

Not all kids like organised games. Some are more inspired to move for imaginative games. To this end, there are a number of ways you can decorate your driveway.

You can divide your driveway into sections with each one representing a different type of imaginative play — for example, one section may feature cooking scenes and offer your child a place to make mud pies, while another section may feature pictures of wild animals and offer your kids a place to play zoo keeper.

Alternatively, you can design paths made of differently sized and spaced circles to encourage your child to jump and skip around the driveway.

For more active decorative concrete ideas, consult with a concrete contractor.

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