Stuck in homes, children are unable to socialize with friends and pursue their sports at clubs or other facilities due to the current pandemic situation. Being at home all the time can quickly become boring and is a stress test not only for the children but for the whole family – especially if parents are working from home. Every day, parents now question themselves how they can keep their children meaningfully occupied and, above all, motivate them to exercise. If children don’t experience movement ideas and motivation, the media will take an even bigger space and this could have fatal consequences for their health.
Kids this age need regular physical activity, proper nutrition, and motivation to build strength, coordination, and confidence — and to lay the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle. Here are some tips to consider:
Mindfulness
Transition to online classes. A mountain of homework waiting after the school day. Increased screen time – stress doesn’t just start in adulthood. More and more children and youngsters are feeling under pressure and overwhelmed in their everyday lives. As a result, their mental and physical well-being suffers.
Some children have trouble sleeping, others get skin rashes or have to fight fears of failure. But with the help of mindfulness exercises, young and old can learn to better perceive their needs, become more balanced and thus reduce the burden they feel on their shoulders. The good thing is that it usually only takes a few minutes a day and a comfortable environment.
Yoga
Kids these days spend their time in a world of parents working from home, video lessons, OTT platforms, assignment deadlines, and much more. We usually don’t think of these influences as stressful for our kids, but often they are. Yoga can be effective against stressors like these.
Yoga improves balance, strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity in children. It offers psychological benefits for children as well. A growing body of research has already shown that yoga can improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, and classroom behavior, and can even reduce anxiety and stress in children. Learning yoga with your children offers many possibilities to exchange wisdom, share good times, and lay the foundation for a lifelong practice that will continue to deepen.
Dance
Long before children learn to speak, they communicate with their environment through their bodies. For this and other reasons, almost all children have a strong urge to move. In addition, young children have a high level of innate creativity. However, being stuck at home homes during the lockdown, both of these abilities have become limited. An optimal way to preserve these abilities is inculcating movement in everyday life, especially through dancing.
The first part of a virtual dance lesson is getting the children in the mood for the dance, and the second part is about rehearsing a specific dance with specific steps. It is important for children to be able to tune into dancing and music. Younger children, in particular, like to know what the dance is all about. They want to get a brief taste of the theme or learn about the figures it’s about. This way they can let their imagination run wild and find their own rhythm of movement.
Nutrition
Making children eat healthy foods can sometimes feel like fighting an uphill battle. The leafier and greener the food, the greater the struggle. Child nutrition is incredibly important, nonetheless.
Nutrition for children is based on the same core principles as nutrition for grown-ups. The answer is a healthy and appropriate balance of diet and exercise, as well as, a conducive lifestyle. The five main food groups include grains, dairy, protein, vegetables, and fruit, and are generally a good starting point for any diet. The portions of each respective food group will depend heavily on age, genetic makeup, and physical activity. It is important to understand each food group to develop a well-balanced and nutritious diet for your child. Proper Nutrition for children can also help establish a foundation for healthy eating habits and nutritional knowledge that your child can apply throughout life.
Physical Activity
Children have a strong urge to exercise. Due to the pandemic restrictions, playgrounds were closed and activities in public were also limited. Many families live in apartments and have little opportunity to provide an outdoor space for the kids. So the question is always how to motivate kids and teens to exercise at home?
If you ask kids who play a certain type of sport why they do it, you’ll always get the same answer: “Because it’s fun!” Hence, training sessions for each age level should be designed to focus on the fun of exercise. Therefore, for training at home, it is important to create a relaxed atmosphere and not create pressure to perform. It is essential that the children can contribute their ideas to the design of the training sessions and that the training should offer excitement and variety. The training of the basic motor skills of endurance, strength, coordination, agility, and speed must be adapted to the developmental psychological, and physical characteristics of children and adolescents.
To provide a better grasp on these matters and their long-term benefits, Go Alpha Kids is organizing a 3-day Kids Sports Summit on Zoom. Here, you will get the opportunity to listen to India’s best sports personalities and learn from their experiences. We will also have sessions on Sports and education, Nutrition for kids, Yoga for kids, Mindfulness in children, and various other parenting topics. Some of these keynote speakers are:
