Reasons to include Kids Fitness in your Children’s Lives

In today’s world there are so many things holding us back from including kids exercise in our children’s lives. We have…

• Long hours at work – we just want to relax, so children relax with us.
• Kids have tons of homework giving them less play time.
• Internet and online Chats
• Video Games
• Tons of TV shows

Plus, for parents the fear of the outside World can be keeping us from the kids running around outside. It seems to me, and many other mothers that I know, that we want to protect our kids from strangers to the point that we keep them inside instead of letting them run around outside.

When my sister and I were growing up we spent most of our play time outside. After we were done with homework and chores we immediately would head outside to play and ride bikes with the neighborhood children. After dinner we were back outside again until dark. Times were different and children were getting a lot of exercise after school. Today…. not as much.

But, this doesn’t mean that exercise can’t be included in our children’s lives. It just makes it more of a challenge, but it can be done. And, truly it has to be done because our children need physical fitness. The benefits of making sure your kids exercise go way beyond just the physical benefits. There are plenty of Physical, Emotional and even Intellectual benefits of exercise as well.

With a little bit of work and thought you can not only include exercise in your children’s lives, but you can show them how much fun exercise can be so they can grow up to be happy and healthy adults.

If you still need reasons to include Children’s Fitness in your Children’s lives here are 29 reasons.

Benefits of Exercise for Children

Physical Benefits to have Kids Exercise

1. Less likely to become overweight
2. Reduces the risk of heart disease
3. Less chance of Diabetes
4. Strong muscles, bones and joints
5. Helps children sleep better
6. Lowers blood pressure
7. Improves Balance
8. Stronger back hips, shoulders, legs and arms which means fewer future injuries.
9. Better able to handle physical challenges
10. Less apt to start smoking
11. Improves motor coordination
12. Makes you feel good

Emotional Benefits to have Kids Exercise

1. Interpersonal Skills – Participating in team sports or by playing with others.
2. Better self esteem
3. Better body image
4. Less Depression
5. Lessens the chance of drug and alcohol abuse
6. Bonding with friends and teammates
7. Handles adversity
8. Reduces anxiety
9. Helps them cope with stress better
10. Sharing skills
11. Better outlook on life
12. Handles emotional challenges better

Intellectual Benefits to have Kids Exercise

1. Enhances academic performance such as Math, Science, English and Social Studies
2. Learns to communicate well with others
3. Improves time management
4. Keeps kids attention in the classroom by reducing boredom
5. Exercise increases blood flow to the brain making it easier for the brain to learn.

The thing is we need to start treating exercise as something fun…. treat kids exercise as an activity. If we can retrain our mind to think of fitness as fun then our children will have an easier time seeing it that way. Kids fitness does not have to be a chore, but instead it can be a bunch of activities that children participate in. How much better does “Kids Exercise Activities” sound than just saying “Kids Exercise“? It sounds more appealing, doesn’t it? And, making Kids Exercise more appealing to our children is just the way to get them moving.

Here are 50 ideas of how to get your children moving. These are Kids Exercise Activities that are not only fun, but if done regularly will help keep them physically fit and happy. Oh, and join them….. kids have an easier time including physical fitness in their lives if their parents do it as well.  Plus, these Kids Exercise activities are fun for the whole family.

Kids Exercise Ideas

1. Tag
2. Monkey in the Middle
3. Dancing to some music
4. Kickball
5. Obstacle Course – create your own obstacle course using things you already have from around the house. Obstacle Courses can be inside the house or outside if it is a nice day.
6. Game of Catch
7. Simon Says – Get them moving with telling children such things as, “Simon says do jumping jacks” and “Simon says hop on one foot”. There are plenty of commands Simon could tell the children to get them moving.
8. Mother May I?
9. Yoga and Pilates – I let the kids join me in some of my daily workouts.
10. Ride bikes
11. Go to a Playground
12. Swimming
13. Twister – Twister is an awesome game that my family and I enjoy to play on our Family Game Night. By the end of the game we are all giggling and sweating. You really have to move around and stretch to do well at this game.
14. Hikes
15. Hula Hoop – I absolutely love the Hula Hoop and so do my kids. And wow, the hula hoop is quite a work out. See how this one mom used the hula hoop during her gym class while homeschooling.
16. Parachute Activities – Parachutes games help strengthen the biceps, triceps , forearms, back, and the deltoids. And, using a parachute with children teaches them team work. All the children must work together to get the parachute working properly. This exercise activity is best with many children.
17. Balloon Toss
18. Freeze Dance – Play music and tell the children to start dancing. Stop the music and the children must freeze until the music starts once again.
19. Frisbee
20. Bowling
21. Batting Cages
22. Red Light, Green Light
23. Roller Skating
24. Golfing – even miniature golf
25. Ice skating
26. Soccer
27. Tetherball – You can find tetherballs at many playgrounds, camps and community centers. Tetherball is a pole with a rope holding a ball. There will be two people playing and each player hits the ball the opposite direction. You win when you wrap the cord completely around in your direction and the ball hits the pole. I played this all the time when I was young and the workout was amazing. But, truthfully I had no idea. I just knew it was fun.
28. Jumping rope
29. Be animals – have your children pretend to be animals like a cat, bunny or snake. This will really get them moving.
30. Basketball
31. Relay races – If you have more than 6 kids then you could have relay races. Kids love relay races. It is a super way to get kids moving and exercising and them not knowing they are exercising at all. And, there are so many kinds of relay races to choose from. From Dress-up Relay Races to Egg Relay Races…. or make up your own.
32. Raking leaves
33. Skipping
34. Scavenger Hunt – Scavenger Hunts can be both entertaining and physcial. Since the majority of the time scavenger hunts are competitions the kids want to collect all the items and return them to the destination as quickly as possible.
35. Ping Pong
36. Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes – You know the song where you touch the body parts when they are said in the song. Each time the verse starts over the song speeds up…. which means the movements go faster. This is a great kids exercise activity.
37. Hopscotch
38. Hide and Seek
39. Duck Duck Goose
40. Tug-of-war
41. Inline skating
42. Follow-the-Leader
43. Crab walk – Letting the kids move around the house or back yard in a crab walk fashion strengthen the children’s arms and abs. It’s also a lot of fun.
44. Volleyball
45. Stretch like a cat
46. Tennis
47. Picking up litter – Picking up litter around your neighborhood is a great way to get your kids exercising. Plus, it helps the environment.
48. Collect leaves on a nature walk
49. Shoveling Snow
50. Leap frog – This is a great children activity that all kids love. Leap frog can be played with just two kids and it is so much fun.

As you can see these activities don’t make you think of kids exercise, but instead they make you think of Fun Kids Activities. That is truly the idea here…. get the kids moving with fun Kids Activities.

Now, of course there are always organized sports you can get the kids involved in through your local schools, community centers, YM/WCA or Jewish Community Centers. Look through your local phone books to find the numbers and give these places a call. They are sure to have lots of fun Kids Fitness Activities and organized sports to get your kids moving to a healthy happier life.

*Note:  Check your Children’s Health Care Provider before starting them in any new exercise program or new strenuous physical activity.

Sources:

• Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology
• Department of Health & Senior Services
• Mayo Clinic
• American Sports Data

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 at 4:08 am and is filed under Blog, Kids Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.