Sydney weather conditions are no deterrent for us! Image: Supplied.

It's important to get your kids playing outdoors as much as possible. Image: Supplied.

Go swimming.

I never seen the smile on my daughter's face like the one that spreads across it when she's in the water. And if you're in there with her, it's even wider. I don't know if we'll ever be cheering her on at the Olympics (who needs even earlier mornings in their life?) but I can already see that her love of being in the water is a life-long pleasure. In summer, we're hunting for crabs in the crevasses of the ocean pool. In winter we're shaking off the chlorine at our local club. Either way, she's moving, I'm moving, and the hot chocolate afterwards has never tasted so good.

You can't beat a day at the beach. Image: Supplied.

Climb a tree.

Why do we lose the love of scaling trees as we get older? It's good for the mind and body to shimmy your way up a knobbly bark. In our family, it's what we do when everyone's getting on each other's nerves after being cooped up at home, or on their screens too long. We head to the end of the street and pick out trees to scale. The kids love it, and if the branches are heavy enough, so do we.

Why do we lose the love of scaling trees as we get older? Image: Supplied.

Go for a bush walk.

Have you ever dragged an unwilling child along a trail in the bush, wondering why they're not enjoying the great outdoors as much as you are? Then you're doing it wrong. I worked out that my daughter will happily keep walking with me if I can keep her talking. Giving her things to spot and run ahead to find for us, short races with me, anything to keep her interested. I have no idea if one day she will love the outdoors as much as her Dad (and Mum, on a sunny day), but for now, bushwalking and talking with my girl has formed the base of some of my happiest weekend-away memories.

And.... Meditate.

Now this is a weird one. If you had told me six months ago that my crazy-energy-filled daughter and I would be meditating together of a morning, I would have laughed you off the couch. But Matilda learned about meditation at her school, where her genius teacher decided to give all the kids five minutes of it after lunch to calm them down and set them up for the afternoon. Now, I do the same thing in the morning, sometimes immediately after our dual plod along the beach. We sit. We Shush. We close our eyes and we breathe.

What are some activities you do with your daughter?