Children Exercising

Have fun with children exercising! Exercise and other physical activities for your children are important parts of their development! Children need the tools and resources from you to establish a good fitness routine. It doesn’t have to be boring. My daughters and I love doing fun activities and sports that incorporate moving into our daily routines.

Here are several options for incorporating fitness into your children’s daily lives: Summertime: Teach your kids to swim! We love going to the pool, so teaching them how to swim is just good sense. Not only is swimming fun for my little girls, but it gives them an all-over body workout, without them even realizing it. You and your children can swim laps or practice kicking, blowing bubbles and more. Make sure your young children are supervised when they go swimming. Also, be sure to have them wear sun screen when swimming outside. The intense sun can damage their fragile skin leaving them with a bad case of sunburn, spoiling all their fun. Take a walk I love to take walks with my daughters. With gas prices on the rise maybe you’ll want to incorporate more walking into your daily routine. For those parents living near their children’s school, I am asking you to walk with your young children to and from school (up hill both ways of course). Otherwise walk with them to the bus stop. You and your children may also enjoy walking to a local grocery store to buy a few groceries. Another idea is to grab a few bags to collect goodies and call it a nature hike. Take a walk around the block, or go for a walk in the forest preserve, to find some fun treasures! We love collecting leaves, acorns, fun sticks, flowers and more. Bike Rides Teach your kids to ride their tricycles and bicycles. Not only is bike riding great exercise for them, it will also build up their self confidence once they’ve mastered it. I love the tricycles with the poles on the back that I can use to push my young daughters along so they can keep up with the big kid bike riders. Start with simple bike rides to the park or around the block. Then, you and your kids can venture off for longer and harder bikes rides to their school, the local zoo, or other fun destinations. Make sure your child’s bike is the right size for them, and be sure to teach them bike safety tips like: Wear your helmet Watch out for cars Watch out for sewer grates. Wear shoes and make sure they’re tied. Yoga for kids Yoga is my new favorite exercise!!! We rented a children's yoga video from the library. It was so much fun! My girls and I loved it! The video made doing Yoga easy and included interactive fun for the kids and myself! It was a great way to exercise while playing and taking care of my children. They kept it interesting for me and fun for the children! Dance Class Sign your kids up for a ballet or dance class. The children will have fun learning and dancing along with the music. Your children might enjoy ballet, hip hop, hula hoop and tap. You might be able to sign up for dance classes through your local park district or find a dance studio. They often have recitals at the end of the class sessions. There is nothing more special than seeing the girls dance. Make your own routine If you enjoy acrobatics, make up your own children’s routine. Just play your favorite fun children’s song. Then, make up fun moves to go with the music. Have your children touch their toes, reach to the sky, twist, and mix in a few jumping jacks. You may want to use unique kid friendly descriptions for the moves so the children will remember them. Maybe you want to say round and round the garden for moving your hands around in a circle. Or, if you want the children to touch their noses to their knees ask them to smell the flowers. They can pretend their knees are the flowers. Make the exercises fun and keep it exciting! I am sure they will love your new routine. No Batteries! Another idea to help keep them active is to minimize the amount of battery operated toys and ride-on vehicles. The battery operated vehicles prevent your children from getting exercise. They can’t practice riding their bike and moving their bodies. They will enjoy non-motorized toys just as much as toys with motors and these will help keep their growing bodies healthy. Join a Sport If your kids are athletic, you may want to have them join an organized sport or activity. This is a great way for them to make new friends and get great exercise. Check Out Your Local Park District. These are often great sources of fun activities for children, including softball, baseball, soccer and summer day camps. Other team sports that your children may enjoy include t-ball, basketball, hockey, swim team, cheerleading, bowling, and gymnastics. Playgrounds for exercise, learning coordination, and just plain fun! Another great opportunity for having fun while exercising is the local playground. Your children will have fun climbing, jumping, running, swinging and moving. Outside Playground Toys Some fun toys that you may enjoy playing with at the playground or outside are: hula hoops, jump ropes, butterfly nets, slip and slides, and balls. My favorite toy that encourage movement from years ago was the lemon twist. I am sure it has a different name now. You loosely tie one end of a rope around your ankle and tie the other end of the rope around a lemon. Then you spin the lemon around and hop over it with the other foot. Check out these other great websites: Happy Cats Yoga Sally offers Childrens’s Yoga, Mum and Baby American Sign language, Horse Riding lessons and one-on-one care for children with Special Needs. Homeschool Curriculum and Support was developed by homeschoolers and for homeschoolers. It is the #1 site for homeschool curriculum and support information, and a huge repository for homeschool resources. Their mission is simply to help homeschoolers find all the resources they need to succeed in their homeschool endeavors!