New apps on tap for healthier kids

How do you make kids healthier and more active in these high-tech times? You design an app.

That was the idea behind a government contest called "Apps for Healthy Kids." The 12 winners, announced recently, include:

Pick Chow! Kids drag and drop food onto a plate to create a well-balanced meal.

Work It Off! Say a food (such as "cheeseburger"), and the app will give you options for exercises to work off the calories. For example, you'd need to ride your bike for 58 minutes to work off the 405 calories in a piece of pizza.

Trainer: Kids care for creatures with certain dietary or fitness needs. The player and creature do the exercises together.

All of the apps are available for free. Check them out (but ask a parent first) at www.appsforhealthykids.com.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Researchers have made some interesting discoveries pertaining to what makes people happy. Social psychologist and author David G. Myers has compiled research-based suggestions for a happier life. They are as pertinent for children as for adults:

1. Give priority to close relationships. Intimate friendships -- those who care deeply for you -- help one weather difficult times.

2. Seek work and leisure that engage your skills.

3. Give your body the sleep it wants. Lack of sleep often results in fatigue and gloomy moods.

4. Exercise. Aerobic exercise promotes health and energy and is an antidote for mild depression and anxiety.

6. Realize that enduring happiness doesn't come from success. Having a sense of well being is better than being well off.