Parenting 101: Ways to Encourage Your Children To Be More Physically Active

Being a parent is a big responsibility. Our children look to us for everything. There are the physical needs that we can provide them with, like food, clothing, and a warm place to live. We need to remember to take care of their psychological needs too. It can be hard to get the balance right sometimes, as we are all busy people.

One thing that is important for our children is our example. It can be hard to tell them not to smoke or not swear if they are things that we do. I find one of the hardest can be to get our children as physically active as they should be. How often are we telling them to get outside and play, when we ourselves are sat at the computer? Getting the right amount of exercise is important for us all, though. So how can we get our families to be more active?

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Choose Appropriate Activities

If you go in all guns blazing and choose something for your child to do that isn’t suited for their age, it will put them off. If they find it too hard, as they aren’t physically able to do certain aspects, then it will knock their confidence. So don’t just book your family in for a fun run straight away. Build up to something like that, with activities like football or swimming.

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Think About Rewards

A lot of our children are going to respond well to getting a reward for taking part. It can help with positive reinforcement; encouraging them to repeat that same behaviour. So if it is appropriate, then think about a reward that might work for them. It could be just a nice treat afterward. You might even think that they’d respond well to trophies plus medals for doing well. So just think about your kids and what they’d like the most.

Get the Right Equipment

If you want to make the active time more fun, then having the right equipment is key. You could set them up with a little circuit to go around. But if there isn’t a skipping rope or a football to use at different stations, then what is the point? Getting a few basic things in will help lots. How about a football, skipping rope, a few cones and a hula hoop for starters? All of those things can be used in a variety of ways, for various ages of children.

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Get Involved Yourself

We are all busy and time is precious. But if you are able to get involved with them, it will encourage them so much more. Going out for bike rides as a family is a lovely thing to do, as well as walks or hikes. Even just a kick about in the garden is precious time altogether. So as tempting as it can be just to tell them to go and play, it is much better if we can get involved with them.

Are there any particular activities that your family likes to do all together?