Kids sole job, in my opinion, is to learn – learn and grow into healthy, caring and productive members of society. As parents and educators, we are responsible for raising healthy kids and that means more than keeping their grades up in school and going to bed on time. We should be teaching them the life skills they will need as adults. Why not establish the habit of eating healthy diets and incorporating time to exercise (as play) into their daily lives? With heart disease as the number one killer of men & women now, it’s more important than ever to make exercise a habit, an enjoyable part of the day.
As parents it’s our job to model the appropriate behavior and make exercising an important part of our lives and our kids’ lives. It can be as simple as dancing together after dinner or going for a walk with your kids regularly. Or it could be a structured exercise like a team sport, as long as it’s about fun. The main goal is to make it a fun habit and help it bring you all closer together. When I go for a walk with my daughter, we often come across something unexpected, like an animal or interesting plant that we stop and take a look at. One time we found a lot of twigs and sticks near a play ground, after a storm and decided to have a stick throwing contest to see how far we could make them fly. Then we tried throwing them while standing on one foot to test our balance. Incorporating fitness with a sense of adventure and inventing new games makes it a great experience for all. Try incorporating time to play & exercise with movement into your families’ life – start it today even if only for 15 minutes, build the time into your day from now on. Turn off the T.V. and electronic devices for a while. You will all be glad you did.
Watch our YouTube Kid’s Fitness Videos for some great exercise ideas like this one below
Kid’s Fitness – Partner Sit-ups
Hi there,
You have hit the nail on the head here with this great informative article. Its so important today to remove the kids from the TV screens, as they seem to have taken over parts of their lives. I fear that they are addicted already, buy its not too late yet, to change that trend.
You have described how simple and easy it is to make a gentle stroll out and about, into an exciting and playful adventure.
By inventing little games and challenges for our children, it may help greatly to re-focus their attention from TV games and devices.
Thanks agin and best wishes on your challenges
Cheers……..Phil Browne.
Hi Phil, Thank you for your comment. I am glad that you agree. It’s so easy to just sit and watch a screen but once we overcome the urge to veg and get going and move, we are enriched and renewed I think. Best wishes to you and yours. Patricia
You are so right…. In the last decades, you can see children overweight, diabetic, and so on…
I also think is parents responsibility to teach the child from a very young age to like sports, working out, having any athletic activity they like. Of course except for the sports the children like you as a parent should be a part in this active life, taking your child swimming, hiking, walking….
Eating healthy is a very difficult thing to teach the child…Fried potatoes and Pizza ae the best:))) But we have to try we have to teach them how important is to have a healthy life style. Thanks for sharing was a very good read.
Cristina
Hi Cristina, thank you for your comment. I agree that healthy eating is hard to teach because we want to indulge just like our kids do – I know I like ice cream and chocolate a lot. I try to teach moderation and good decision making to my child. We eat our veggies daily and try to save the chocolate cake for an occasional treat. I know that is hard to do but being a parent is a hard job but the rewards are great! Have a great journey with yours!
Good point about kids and fitness, kids are so involved in their technology toys they spend very little time outdoors compared to the past.
Many kids are very difficult to get them interested in anything physical, most the kids in schools are all over weight and many do not even take gym classes any more like we had to do.
Hi Jeffrey, thank you for your comments. It is a sad state of affairs that kids (and adults) spend less and less time being physical and their health suffers. We have to be the change that we want to see. Good luck in all your endeavors!
Hi,
I totally agree with the fitness of children, it is our job as parents to keep our children away from obesity.
Some parents just want an easy life by just letting there child sit in front of the television which i totally disagree with.
Dancing together with your children can be fun its keeping fit and interacting with each other.
You say about the twig flying contest sounds like fun 🙂
like you say with the standing on one leg and testing the balance its all fun in with exercise.
I will definitely be doing that with the grandchildren.
This is very informative and also love the idea for the kids fitness videos, keep up the good work 🙂