These days, children spend way too much time watching the television or sitting behind the screen of some electronic device. Many health problems come with a lack of exercise. These include obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, just to name a few. It's been proven that overweight children become obese adults. Your duty as a parent is to encourage the children in your care to exercise. By encouraging your kids to participate in daily exercise, you will help them maintain a healthy weight, and it will help reduce the risk of developing diseases, such as cancer, later in life.
Your children look up to you as a role model. They will spend much of their time watching you and try to mimic your good or bad habits. If you're active and show enthusiasm when it comes to exercise, your kids will be more active themselves and will be more likely to stay active throughout their lives.
All children like to have fun, so if you make exercise an activity they enjoy, they are likelier to stick to it. You can do this by playing music and encouraging dancing, planning walking trips around the zoo or a theme park, or getting them to participate in activities they are extremely interested in, such as a sport like baseball or horseback riding.
Getting everyone involved in an activity is one of the most successful ways to encourage your children to exercise, and it can be done in many ways. You can get involved by doing the activity with your child. For example, if they like to roller skate, you can get some roller derby skates for women and participate with them. Or you could volunteer to coach a soccer team or bring the family to watch them play.
Reducing the time children spend indoors on electronics is a highly effective way to encourage them to exercise more. This is because they won't have anything else to do, so you can find a physical activity to keep them preoccupied. You could use technology to your advantage. Many apps track and encourage activity and have fun suggestions for kids.
If you have difficulty encouraging your children to exercise, giving them something to motivate them is a great way to get them moving. When kids have a goal to work towards, it will promote that physical activity. Rewards could include a new video game, a new piece of equipment for their activity, or a trip to the cinema on the weekend.
Kids love to enjoy holidays because they love to have fun out of the home. You can explore the nearby locations where you can enjoy your weekend with kids, and this weekend plan must have some adventure and physical activity.
You can go to some adventure parks with games involving running, jumping, climbing, etc.
You plan to go to some hill station where you can go hiking.
You can go to some beach where you can play volleyball or soccer.
Kids are motivated when they achieve something new or when they get rewarded. Plan some exercise or physical activity and ask your kids to participate. Announce an exciting reward for the winner and runner-ups. The urge to be the winner and earn a reward will excite them to participate in the competition, and you will achieve your goal.
You perform various tasks in your daily routine like cleaning the home, maintaining the bed, arranging things, cooking, going to market, washing clothes, etc. You can get your kids involved in tasks that are easy to perform, like watering the garden or going to market with you, spreading washed clothes on the string, and arranging books or other items on proper shelves. These activities will keep your kids busy and active.
Walking is considered the easiest and the healthiest exercise, and you can underestimate its effects on your health. Even if you have a car or another vehicle to move, walk, or jog to the park, market, or even to school where your kid's study is better. Take your kids with you while you visit the nearby market park or drop them off if the school is not that far. This daily walk will make your kids active and healthy.
If your kids are addicted to Social Media like Snapchat, you can use that to encourage them to exercise. There are some new challenges on Snapchat, and you can explore the challenges that are safe for kids and involve some physical exercise. Like a few weeks ago, there were pushup challenges in one go. Find such challenges and ask your kids to take this challenge and post their videos to get encouragement from others once it is done.
Children between the ages of 6 and 17 need to participate in high-intensity exercise for an hour a day, five days a week. Regular exercise will make your children healthier and improve their academic performance. Having an active family will also improve your health, which is important too. I hope these ideas will help you and your kids to stay healthy, fit, and active.