Back when my children were babies (sunhats on head, pails and shovels in hand) I'd drum up glorious images of summers to come. They would skip home from school once that final bell rang, ready for three months of fun in the sun. I'd greet them in the backyard with a badminton set and a pitcher of lemonade. They'd play, I'd pour. That's it.

I never considered that my little vacationers might reach for video-game joysticks over badminton racquets or that they'd want to spend their lazy, hazy days surfing the net, not the waves. It didn't cross my mind that once those babies turned into kids (baseball caps on heads, remote controls in hand), my imagery of romping in the sun would give way to the SpongeBob Sizzling Summer Marathon on Nickelodeon.

Many summers and melted parental fantasies later, I see I'm not alone; the summer couch potato syndrome is all over the modern child population like guilt on Jewish mothers.

There is mounting concern over this shift from the backyard to the couch. A recent broad-scale study featured in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health reports that summertime sedentariness among children has them packing on the pounds at twice the rate than during the school year. Additional research links inactivity with increased incidence of childhood depression and anxiety and traditionally adult health problems like cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol.

So how can we ensure our kids remain happy, healthy, and active during their lengthy school siesta? Start with strict rules and limitations regarding screen time (the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours daily of television, video games, and computers combined), and follow up with plenty of opportunity for child-oriented outdoor fun.

•Backyard volleyball. Use a clothesline as a net (make sure it's higher than the tallest child's head) and a lightweight beach ball or balloon for the volleyball.

• Baseball splash. Fill a bucket with water balloons. Have kids take turns pitching and batting…and getting drenched.

• Water limbo. Use water from a garden hose instead of a stick; players bend, crawl, or slither under the stream to avoid getting wet. Driest kid wins.

• Splash tag. In a cool variation of the old standby, the player who's "it" uses a squirt/spray bottle or throws a wet sponge to soak his targets; once drenched, that player becomes the new "it."

• Backyard mural. Soak an old sheet and hang it on a clothesline or fence. Put out various tempera paints and sponges, paintbrushes, and squirt bottles and let the kids go at it.

• Create natural window decor. Go on a nature hike and pick some pretty summer flowers. Have children arrange them on contact paper (sticky side up) and seal the deal with a second piece of contact paper (sticky side down). Trim the edges, punch a hole, and hang it in the window with ribbon.

• Backyard sand castles. A couple of bags of sand from the hardware store are all it takes to make a bona fide backyard beach. Throw in some plastic pails and shovels and let the creative construction begin.