Challenge Kids: How to Help Your Child to Start Being Active

With the increasing popularity of in home entertainment, the reliance on motor vehicles, children and let's be honest adults are engaging less and less in active pursuits. If you think your child needs to be more active here are some suggestions to encourage them. Challenge Steps Be a role model. If you are wanting your child to become more active, telling them this with the television constantly blaring out is going to dilute any attempt you might make. If you, yourself are active, it doesn't need to be anything high energy, it can be going for a walk, doing some DIY, any pursuit that sees you spend less time on the settee then your message is more likely to have an impact. Understand your child. There might be real underlying psychological reasons that may explain why your child is not active rather than 'laziness'. It could be that your child does not feel they can participate in sports or other pursuits because of a perceived lack of skill, embarrassment or they are being bullied. That needs to be addressed before you can begin to encourage your child to be more active. Make it about your child and not about what you want. You should never force your child to do something because you think it will be good for them. This will only have a negative effect on them and in some cases make them more determined to play their computer games. Encouragement through understanding your child's interests has to be central to what you are trying to achieve. Only that way will your child begin to understand that they want to do a given activity for themselves and not to please you. Signpost Opportunities. Perceived 'laziness' could, in some cases, be explained through your child simply not knowing what is out there for them to do. Not all areas or families are wealthy and opportunities for recreation might not be immediately obvious or accessible. Your local council or local authority will usually have a program of free events that you can show your child. Conversely, having too many opportunities to participate in may cause confusion and therefore lead to inactivity in your child. In these cases you need to talk to your child to help them tease out what it is they would most like to do. Encourage responsibility for pets. If you have a dog, talk to your child about what dogs love to do and what makes them happy i.e: Go for walks, chase balls etc. This could be a very simple and rewarding way to get your child into the open air as well as the opportunity for some quality family time. It doesn't even need to be a dog, cleaning out the fish can easily be re-defined from a routine chore to something that your child is doing to make the fish happy! Walk to school. Schools in the UK have guided walk to school schemes. Not only is this great for the environment and alleviating school run traffic congestion, it is a great wake-up exercise and an opportunity for your child to make friends. Build on their interest in in-home entertainment. There is no reason why you cannot develop an activity that is based on your child's television or computer game interests. For example, if your child loves Disney Princesses why not work together to write a little play to act out about that very subject? There are many other ways to do this, you just need to apply a little imagination to get them away from the television. Challenge Video and Showroom Challenge Comments

Join Challenge Offered by Travel Company Inc Iren Jones 1 attending Iren Jones