Food Gives Us Energy to Move!
Source: United State Department of Agriculture
Along with making food choices for a healthy diet, your child should learn that to have a strong body, he or she needs to do plenty of physical activities. You can reinforce the tie between eating, energy, exercise and good healthy with these movement activities for all ages.
Outdoor Fitness Fun
You know that children love to be outside, and doing an activity with you in the great outdoors makes the experience even more special. Try these fitness-fun ideas together.
Play tree tag. You'll need streamers of different colors, such as yellow, blue and red. Tie a streamer around each of several trees that are fairly close together. Choose a color, such as red, and stand next to a tree with a red streamer. Say another color, such as "Blue!" You and your child run to the tree with a blue streamer around it. Ask your child to shout another color -- "Yellow!" Run to a tree with a yellow streamer. Continue taking turns naming a color and running to the appropriate tree each time until you are both ready to stop.
Do jumping jacks outside. Jumping jacks are a great exercise for improving your child's coordination. You don't have to worry about low ceilings or disturbing the neighbors downstairs -- because you're doing your jumping jacks outside!! Bring along a cassette recorder with lively music to listen to as you exercise. Or invite your child to help you count one-two/three-four/five-six and so on. Before you start, ask your child to predict how high the number will go before you decide to stop. Be sure to quit before either of you gets overtired.
Take walks together in every season. For a quieter form of exercise, take walks with your child. Winter, spring, summer, or fall, there's always something interesting that you and your child can discover. Look for human and animal tracks in the snow; search for signs of spring in new flowers and buds on trees; spy interesting shadows on a sunny summer day; gather colorful leaves and acorns on a crisp autumn afternoon.
Fitness Tips
• Wear comfortable clothing and footwear when you exercise.
• Do simple stretches to loosen up the muscles before exercising.
• Don't overdo it! Stop when you or your child gets tired.
• Take deep breaths to cool down after you exercise.
• Drink plenty of liquids after you exercise, to replace water that your body loses when you sweat.
Household chores can be exercise, too
Physical activity doesn't have to mean running, biking or swimming. Many household jobs help to build strong bodies, too. Invite your child to help with the following activities. Be sure to supervise carefully.
• Raking leaves
• Shoveling snow
• Weeding the garden
• Harvesting the garden
• Vacuuming and sweeping
• Dusting furniture
• Washing windows inside
• Let your child suggest ideas, too!
