The Palouse Resource Guide, now headed by the YMCA at Washington State University, is intended to increase access to resources for individuals, families and communities living on the Palouse. The YMCA promotes healthy living and social responsibility for all.

As kids become teenagers, it isn’t always so easy to entertain them or encourage them to spend time with their parents. That is why parents nowadays have to think outside of the box and dream up ways to keep their teen’s attention. It is why many parents are choosing to take up sports shooting as the alternative family outing.

Making Time for Fun

Teens today are more interested in their cell phones and video games. They love texting and talking to friends, play games, and more. Teens are all to often bored with their parents and most find it very hard to enjoy family vacations, game nights, and movie nights are a total drag for them. In fact, if you take your teen on a vacation, they will most likely just sit around pouting over it and texting their friends about how much they hate it, the entire time you are on vacation.

It isn’t just your teen that has the problem. Teens grow up and they change, they become more independent and it becomes hard for them to talk to you about their life. This, in turn, means that no matter how devoted you are as a parent, you will still have trouble relating to your teen and then issues will develop. When you notice this is happening in your family, you will need to find a way to make fun happen for everyone.

Why Sport Shooting?

Many parents neglect to consider sports shooting because it involves a gun. No one wants to encourage a child to use a gun. However, it isn’t so much the idea that you are encouraging guns to be in your teens hands. You are encouraging them to learn gun safety and how to aim at a target. You are giving them something to focus on that can be fun. How much would you enjoy teasing your teen about missing that target by an inch? How much would your teen enjoy knowing they can outshoot you or their sibling?

How to Get Started

Most areas have a gun range that can be used. They have people on hand that can teach you how to shoot. They can talk about the best long range rifle scope for your gun. They can teach you and your child the importance of aiming accurately. From there, you and your child can spend time together and there is no denying the thrill of learning how to shoot the right way.

It also does not have to cost you a fortune to learn how to shoot with your teen. You can search up what the best scope for the money may be and you can find a rifle that is cost effective and built to be high quality. Once the family has practiced shooting and especially if you live in a rural area, your family can practice target shooting at soda cans in the evening while talking about what is going on in your teenager’s life. What more could you ask for?

We believe that people need to stay active and have a good time. It leads to everyone staying healthy. However, we also understand that part of staying healthy means having a good time and feeling as though you are surrounded by friends. Our club house facilities are designed to give you the best of both worlds in one. We offer you a place to play all that you are able to and a place for you to relax within our clubhouse. Are you ready to see what we have to offer our guests?

We Encourage Exercising

When you visit us, you will immediately see that you are among friends. You are with others who are like you and want to live a healthier life. We give you the tools and the rest is on you. We have a fully equipped gym with a large variety of exercise equipment for you to make use of. Best of all, while you are in the gym, there will be people all around you to give you positive encouragement to keep trying and keep going with it because we want for you to feel energized when you leave us.

If you are not into riding a stationary bicycle or lifting weights to get your daily exercise in, we also have a large swimming pool available. Swimming is a great, low impact, exercise that encourages toned muscles and a healthier heart. There are also enough people around to ensure that you do not get into trouble while in the pool. If you have tried to push yourself too hard, help will be right there to help you. This makes it a great way for even our older visitors to get a little more active and feel safe doing water exercises.

Other Facilities

At the end of the day when you have done all that you wanted to, we also provide a locker room. This locker room is fully equipped to hold your personal items so that while you are working out with us, you do not have to worry about where your purse or your wallet may be.

We also realize that people come to us to exercise, so we provide you a space to freshen up and wash away the chlorine. Each of our showers is equipped with the best handheld shower head that we could find. There is enough water pressure in them to relieve the sore muscles that you may have acquired while working out. With that being said, if you are simply looking for a way to relax after you have been exercising or dealing with a lot of stress at work, the LED shower head in our locker rooms can also encourage total relaxation.

All you have to do is show up and say that you would like to become a member of our club house. From there, you will have total access to all of our outstanding club house facilities. You can make use of them any time and stay for as long as you want to.

As proof of how beautiful life can be in Pullman, WA. there is a place for you and others to visit and explore that will show you how truly beautiful the world is. It is a place where the Giant Palouse Earthworm was first discovered in 1897, the tallest chainsaw carving, and grizzly bear research all come together. There are a lot of amazing things to see here. All you have to do is take a moment to come explore the nearby Palouse Scenic Byway and see the world as it should be.

Part of surviving and keeping your community a great place to live, should involve things that help the environment. At Washington State University there are several programs available to help people, both young and old, gain a better understanding of how to care for the world around them. This is done through positive action, reinforcement, and actions that no one will soon forget. Are you ready to explore Eco Adventures to see what you can learn?

Consider how full of everyday garbage our land fields are. This is the reason that we recycle. Put your plastics in one bin, your burnable stuff in another, cans and metals in this stack, and other stuff goes into this trash can. Combine that with the theory of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” and it should not surprise you that one way you can recycle is to shop at yard sales rather than visit your local department stores to find your treasures. You will save money and perhaps find a few treasures that you didn’t know you wanted if you join a community wide yard sale.

You can explore and learn about the world around you through science, while spending time with your family and friends. The Palouse Discovery Science Center provides families of all ages with a variety of things to do and learn through a variety of mobile science things to see, family fun days and more. When you are ready to spend some time exploring your world, here is a good place to start. What kind of adventure are you ready for?

If you have a love of history and you want to encourage your kids to enjoy it as well, know that there is a place for you to visit. It is here that you will discover how much of the area’s history is being preserved. It is all located at the Museum of Anthropology, which is on the Washington State University campus and everyone’s invited to come and see what treasures have been found by the anthropologists.