Raising Active Kids
I am alarmed at a news report that I recently watched that said there are so many obese children these days. A few years ago, it was very rare to see a 6-year old obese child. When I was six, I didn’t remember having any obese classmates. But today, child obesity is becoming the norm in schools.
The report continues that there are a number of factors that contribute to the problem. There’s the fastfood culture that we have adapted. There’s the video games and television. Children today don’t go out and play as much as we did when we were still young. With so many things inside the house to capture their attention, it can be difficult to encourage your child to get some exercise.
But it is one of the reasons why we have so many obese children today. We should let them exercise by doing outdoor games and activities.
I almost make it a point to take my children out for a walk at the park. They enjoy going with me when I walk the dog every morning. Nicky also plays ball with his Dad. We let him climb on monkey bars and run with our dog.
We don’t let our kids watch TV. We have a few educational CD’s at home that we let them watch when only when they are being too restless but that’s all they get to see. They don’t have access to television shows. Video games are big no-no at home.
Eventually, we will encourage our children to get into sports or expose them to hobbies that require physical activities like dancing or biking. I believe that it is not too early to start your child to build a healthier body by encouraging him to get play outdoors and run. My eldest daughter wants to learn ballet. We plan to enroll her in ballet class during summer.
When your child is active, they will avoid obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and other illness when they are old. So raise healthy kids by encouraging them to be active kids.