How to Find Alternative Ways of Recreation for Your Kids?

Children love video games, don’t they? Research has shown that children spend more than 14 hours a day in front of a screen based device. More than 14 hours a day! That’s too much. They are not even supposed to own a screen based device at a young age. In this post, we will explore the alternative ways for recreation that does not involve the unhealthy activities that lead your children towards sedentary lifestyle that ultimately brings forth fatal diseases.

Know your Child Better

Children have myriad interests, but with video games leading them to the abyss of sedentary behavior, it is impossible to let those interests flourish. So, first things first, know your child’s interest and figure out a way to use a creative way for recreation. For example, if your child is drawn to arts and paintings, then plan his recreation around things that introduce him to the arts. The idea is to get your kid off the couch and moving. Most parents find it convenient to let their kids play with convenience toys that include tablets and video games.

Be Ready for the Inconvenience

Many parents believe that if a kid is in front of TV, he is safe. Outdoor playground equipment poses serious injury risks that parents want to avoid. If you seriously care about your child’s well being, then you will have to be prepared to find the time to look after your kids. Keep in mind that your nanny will not look after your children like you would do, so do not expect your kids to be safe in the house while the nanny is around. The most important thing is to find the time for your children.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to do this; you want your children to have a healthy activity without getting hurt, you will have to find ways to involve with your kids.

Get Fit as a Family

There are hundreds of games that you can indulge in as a family. You don’t necessarily have to visit a zoo or a community park. There are various alternative ways to get your kids physically fit without spending a fortune on commercial playground equipment or any other similar play structures that offer nothing but a repetitive structure that tires children. It is, however, true that playground equipment and playgrounds offer innumerable opportunities for kids for active play, but they sometimes enervate children. Children need unique, vigorous activities that can do more than just getting their heart racing.

To get fit as a family, start at home. You can reserve a room for physical activity and bring your gym activities at home. Children can work out with you. In addition, children can also use structured activity toys to get their necessary work out while you engage with bench press.

Moreover, household chores are a great way to get the whole family engage in activities that offer essential exercise that the young bodies need.

Overcoming Child Depression through Enchanting Tales and Physical Fitness

Child depression is more common than you can imagine. Many parents refuse to believe that their children might be suffering from depression or any other form of mental ailment. Why? Because they are kids. They are not supposed to feel anxious or become a victim of dejection. The fact is that children, just like adults, have their “dark days” and choosing not to acknowledge those dark days only makes things worse for children. In this post, we will look at how you as a parent can help children with their ongoing stress and its underlying effects.

Pave the Way for an Active Lifestyle

The most important thing for children is that they have a balanced life. However, many few parents understand that. In today’s hectic lifestyle, parents hardly have any time to focus on a child’s physical fitness. Most parents believe that the activity kids get in their P.E. class or school playground equipment is more than enough. But in reality, children need more activity than the tiny bits of movement that they get to engage with in school. According to a research study, school-going children need at least 42 hours of active play in a week.

Here are some sure-fire ways that you can use to introduce ample activity into your child’s life:

• Let him walk to the school from some distance
• Let him use a bicycle or skateboard for school
• Arrange play dates and encourage active play in children
• Allow your kid to attend sporting events and other activity based events at school.
• Encourage kids to participate in community services
• Take part in the community playground clean up projects and involve your kids with you
• Let kids help with simple household chores like dish washing, garage clean up and the car wash.

According to a growing body of study, empty mind leads to boredom and ultimately child depression. Engaging kids with different activities allows them to utilize their energies and eliminate anxiety.

Use the power of Tale Telling

Stories are a great way to entertain children. No matter how depress your child is about his grades or any other issue in the school or playground, stories can help them forget about their little troubles. Here’s a thing that you need to consider, not all the stories are the same and therefore they don’t interest all kinds of children. It is crucial that you understand your child’s taste in literature and help him find the books that interest him the most.

There are various age related children’s book that can interest children. The challenge would be to find something that the children will actually like. If your child seems to be disinterested in the idea of stories, then increase his play time. Remember that a simple playground activity, including active play with a commercial playground equipment or any play equipment for that matter can be a perfect substitute for stories and screen based activities. Anything that keeps children engaged can divert their attention from the apprehensiveness.

Why Children Need Specific Set of Exercises?

As a parent, it can be very challenging to understand what exercises might be best for children. Many parents usually fail to comprehend as to why children need a specific set of exercises. This post will shed a light on the unknown facts that play a significant part in our children’s physical and mental development.

Not All Exercises Stand Equal

The first and the most important thing that you need to realize is that not all exercises are designed to perform an equal task. For example, exercises that are designed to build leg muscle endurance cannot tone the pectoral muscles. Similarly, exercises that are designed for cardiovascular strength might not be best for toning the calves.

In the same fashion, not every exercise is designed for every age group. Children, unlike adults, require mild yet endurance building physical activities. These activities can include a simple play around outdoor playground equipment or fun-packed activities in the backyard. Different age groups require different set of exercises. Here’s a list of activities that children in different age groups should engage with:

• Ages 2 months to 5 months: Body movement exercises, including leg, arm and neck movement.
• Ages 1 -5: Ample physical activity that involves both structured and unstructured play.
• Ages 5-10: Mild exercise combined with active play. The exercises during the P.E. class are more than enough for children in this age group.
• For teenagers: Teenagers can start lifting small weights and can engage in mild gym exercise.

How do I Know Which Activities Are Best For My Child?

As mentioned above, children in different age group require different exercises. So, look for activities that are best for your child’s age. The activities mentioned earlier in the article are just some of the activities that you can choose for your child; there are myriad other recreational activities that can help your kids achieve a healthier lifestyle.

Moderate aerobic exercises

• Active play such as hiking, roller-blading and skateboarding
• Biking and swimming
• Walking or jogging to school

Bone strengthening exercises

• Running and Swimming
• Underwater exercises
• Bicycle riding and Trampoline jumping activity
• Martial arts activities
• Sports such as ice or field hockey, basketball, swimming, tennis or gymnastics

Vigorous aerobic exercises

• Games such as hide and seek and tug of war
• Pushups, and Pull-ups
• Resistance exercises
• Tree climbing
• Sit-ups and squats
• Swinging on playground equipment/bars
• Gymnastics

Muscle strengthening exercises

• Games such as hopscotch
• Hopping, skipping, jumping
• Jumping rope
• Running and Swimming
• Sports like tennis, volleyball and basketball

Apart from the above mentioned activities, you can allow your kids to engage with modern commercial playground equipment that allows children to have opportunities for active play. Many play structures and Playscapes allow children to exercise their body muscles and achieve an overall workout. The regular workout is important to eliminate corpulence and its related diseases that include cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and blood pressure.

Am I a Mom Enough?

If you have been the permanent resident of the ‘mommy land’ for a while now, then you have probably been visited by the thought “am I mom enough?” Am I doing enough for my child?” Or “what more should I be doing for my child?” Of course you are doing enough. You provide for them and make sure that they stay protected from the ill-fated events that might injure their future. What more could a kid ask for? However, it is a good practice to evaluate yourself once in a while and see where you can make things better.

Being a mother can be one of the most challenging yet most blessed things that you can ever experience. However, the “challenging” and the “blessed” part of the mommy life seldom merge together. Many women are usually followed around by a cloud of guilt that never lets them catch a wink: Am I doing it wrong? Is it right when I scold my child over a trivial matter? And most importantly, am I giving my child enough attention?

Am I Doing Enough?

As parents, we all do enough for our kids. However, our crazy daily schedules and chores keep us so busy that sometimes we forget that our child might need more from us. If you remember the classic “Cheaper by the Dozen,” recall that the youngest of the Baker’s felt that the other kids were getting more attention. This is common in big families where parents have to take care of more than 4 children.

So should you feel guilty about not giving your child the attention that he needs? Absolutely not! However, you can certainly try to find more time for the little activities. For example, you can accompany your child when he plays around his preferred outdoor playground equipment, or help him with his homework.

Should I Be Doing More?

No matter how much you think you are doing for your child, or how much influence you have on his lifestyle, there is always something that needs enhancement. So, yes, you should definitely be doing more. There are a lot of ways that you can become more engaged with your child’s life. But before you begin, make sure that you make a schedule for your daily activity and find the time that you can adjust. You have to find a balance between work and home, so plan ahead before you dress up for your child’s soccer game.

What Exactly Should I Be Doing?

Most parents blame themselves for the trivial things that they miss in their child’s life. Instead of blaming yourself, start doing more. Now how can you do more for your child? First of all, identify the areas that could use more attention. For example, if you are not much involved with your child’s social life, then start engaging. Arrange play dates for your kid to accompany him as he plays with his friends. Use every opportunity to engage with your child. Children love commercial playground equipment. Plan a play date that allows your child to take part in play activities that involve modern play structures.

The Bored Tyke: Where is boredom taking our children?

The recent surge of technology has changed the way children perceive the world. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that the bleeding edge technology has flipped the conventional horizon of recreation. Gone are the days when children could sit on a bench and read a book while observing nature, or engage in simple play structures in the community park. Game consoles are the king of our Tyke’s world and there is nothing we can do to change that. This post will discover why children find technological gaming devices far more attractive than the conventional play structures and how is boredom playing a part in this matter.

The Boredom Monster

Before we go any further, it is worth spending a few seconds in getting acquainted with the origin of the boredom monster. Research suggests that boredom can originate from 2 main sources. First, children experience boredom when they have a low arousal level that keeps the brain active during any activity. Low arousal levels can usually manifest themselves in children when the activity does not entail a subject that intrigues. The best example of this form of boredom is a classroom activity that is usually bores children, especially if it is about a subject that they found less interesting.

The second form of boredom originates from high levels of energy that fails to find its way into a useful activity. In other words, when children have high level of arousal and they don’t find anything to put the energy into, they feel bored.

So What Exactly Boredom Doing to Our Children?

When children don’t find outdoor playground equipment interesting enough, they voluntarily submit themselves to the digital devices that in the long run damage their cognitive and physical health. More than 16 % of youngsters suffer from obesity and corpulence related diseases that have disabled them from performing a challenging task that they should be able to perform without any hassle.

What Kind of Boredom your Tyke has?

Before you can cook up strategies to help your child eliminate boredom from his life, understand what kind of boredom your child suffers from. If the boredom case 1 (as discussed above) then helps your child make through the boring stuff. In case your child has the second type of boredom (which is the most commonly occurring type of boredom), allow him to have ample opportunities for active play. Commercial playground equipment and school playground equipment are a great way to let kids channel their energy into healthy activities.

There is a possibility that your child might not find the conventional playgrounds interesting. However, playgrounds are not the only place that can help kids with tediousness. You can engage your child in intriguing activities that not only edify them, but also help them have ample physical exercise. Ask your child what interests him the most and plan activities accordingly. Children have different tastes when it comes to physical activity, which makes it crucial to have their opinion about the activities.

Got something to add to the above discussion? Feel free to share your opinion with us through our comment section.

Natural and Modern Playgrounds: Who’s the Winner?

Community parks are not what they used to be; in fact, it would not be wrong to say that some community playgrounds have received way more attention than the other community parks. Lack of government funding and gradually declining private funds have stripped the playgrounds of the play equipment that is essential for their integrity as a resourceful play area. In this article, we will explore the pros of natural and modern playgrounds.

The Benefits of Modern Playgrounds

Modern playground equipment might not have embellishd most of the community parks yet, but it has managed to garner the praise of many education specialists. Dawn Coe, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Tennessee, visited a playground that had been remodeled with the modern playground equipment, including a gazebo, slides, artificial trees and plants, a brook, rocks and logs. According to Coe kids invested twice as much time playing in the modern playgrounds than they did in the natural parks, and were more energetic in their play actrivities after the dynamic redesign.

As per Dawn Coe observation, “Common playscapes have all the earmarks of being a practical yet different option for conventional play areas for school and group settings.”

Here some of the most common advantages of modern playgrounds:

Modern playgrounds utilize the technologically advanced outdoor playground equipment and play structures that offer a fun-packed adventure.

• Modern playgrounds offer age-appropriate equipment that is hard to find in natural playgrounds.
• Modern play areas are safer than the natural play areas with less equipment hazards.
• With modern playgrounds children have the chance to explore the wonders of active play through highly advanced equipment.
• Children learn to use a technologically advance piece of equipment.

Benefits of natural playgrounds

Natural playgrounds offer more than just broken tree branches and twigs; researchers believe that children learn a lot from the junk item that they usually find on a playground. Below, we will look at some of the advantages offered by natural playground structures:

• Natural play areas with exceedingly concentrated natural setting open youngsters to the excellence and marvel of nature while testing them physically. Natural setting envelops the goodness of nature and allows kids to have a taste of natural beauty while they nourish their minds and bodies with physical activity.
• Natural play areas are more practical in a way that they utilize regular play area assets as a part of their fundamental structure. In natural play areas, children have more opportunistic to explore the hidden wonders of nature, which modern playgrounds seldom offer.
• Natural play areas use less artificial elements that keep the natural goodness alive.
• Unlike modern play areas, natural Playgrounds usually require no entry fee.

Both natural and modern playgrounds with an upgraded set of commercial playground equipment offer myriad advantages; children grow both physically and psychologically by playing in fully equipped and natural playgrounds. So, it would be wrong to pick a side, or to say that modern playgrounds beat the natural ones.

How to Redefine Fun for Preschoolers with Gross Motor Activities?

Most of us are not really aware of what exactly are the gross motor activities, which is the primary reason why we never look for ways to incorporate them in our children’s lives. So before we take off about what gross motor activities to include in our kids’ lives, let’s, first see what gross motor skills really are. In general terms, gross motor activities are the motor skills that your child learns at an early age. The basic gross motor skills include body movements, including leg, hand and head movement. This article will discuss the various gross motor activities that can help your child develop advance motor skills while having fun on the playground or in the backyard.

Hopscotch

There are various approaches that can help kids have an enjoyable game of hopscotch. The only challenge is to draw your fundamental hopscotch framework. To play the game, the first player tosses a marker or a stone into box #1 (of the framework). The other player bounces on one foot to cover the distance to the last box and returns back to box #1, halting to get the marker or stone on the way.

This is the least challenging approach to the game where players simply hop through the boxes to get the marker. You can add levels to the game to make it more fun and exigent.

Get Together for the Good Old-Fashioned Charades

Charades is one of the most popular and engaging games. For younger children, you can act out some simple things, such as sleeping, sad face and smiley faces. You can also use charts or cut out pictures from magazines to add more fun to the activity.

Engage them in ‘Red Light, Green Light’

In this game, one child becomes the “stop light” and stands in the corner. The “stop light” calls “green light” and the children move toward the “stop light.” As the stop light calls “red light,” the children stop. You can add variations in the game to keep children interested. For example, you can add “yellow light” and “blue light” with different characteristics. This kind of activity can prove to be far more effective than any school playground equipment or any play structure for that matter.

What Time Is It Mr. Fox/Mr. Wolf

Here’s another simple activity that can help kids develop strong gross motor skills. In this game, one kid plays Mr. Fox and stands with his back to the other kids. The Other kids ask “what time is it Mr. Fox?” and Mr. Fox replies and gives children a time. If Mr. Fox gives 3 o’clock, the kids take 3 steps towards Mr. Fox. Mr.Fox then tries to catch the children, and children run as far away as they can.

Doggy Doggy Where’s Your Bone

This game can be best played in a group version. During the game, children take turns hiding the dog from the “doggy,” who is played by another child from the group. Allow your kids to be creative and find places for the bone that will be impossible to spot. This can be best played in a playground around an outdoor playground equipment or in the backyard. You can also spice up the play with an enticing chant like the one given below:

“Doggy, Doggy, where’s your bone?

Somebody stole it from your home.

Guess who! Maybe you . . .

Maybe the monkeys from the zoo.

Wake up doggy, find your bone.”

Exercising through Aerobic Dancing: How to guide Kids for Aerobic Dancing

What could be better than a high level, heart pumping activity for your child? Perhaps, nothing. Research shows that the best way to eliminate sedentariness For those parents who overlook the benefits of aerobic dancing must know that this might your kids only chance at developing muscular strength. Before we go any further towards the dancing techniques, first, let’s walk through the various types of aerobic exercises that you introduce your kids to.

Aerobic Dance

Vigorous aerobic dance movements help in keeping up the inside and out wellness furthermore ends up being a delightful experience. Your child can strive for hip-jump type of move, as it offers incredible cardiovascular strength and can be loads of fun, as well.

Cycling

If you believe that cycling is a kid thing, think again! One of the best sorts of high-impact activities, cycling gives incredible cardiovascular strength, without bringing about any sort of mechanical stress to the lower legs, back, hips, and knees. Bicycle riding should be the first thing you should be teaching your toddlers.

Power Walking

Tired of the sedentary way of life your kids are pursuing? Get them engaged in a power stroll. A 30-60 minute walk can bring exceptional health benefits given that it is done on a regular basis.

Running

For this activity all you need to do is get your child a decent pair of running shoes! Running is one of the least complex aerobic activities; it is an awesome approach to combat calories. The best part is you get an opportunity to appreciate the rapture of nature and get a vibe of the outside air. In case your child hates the idea of a jogtrot, then maybe any nearest commercial playground equipment will get his heart racing.

Swimming

For children who find swimming exciting, it can be a perfect aerobic activity. Swimming does not result in much stretch or strain to the joints of the body. Laps can be an extraordinary approach to smolder the additional calories.

Getting Started with Aerobics

Aerobic dancing is a charming and vivacious approach to get fit. Here’s how you can help your kids get fit without hitting any outdoor playground equipment or play structure.

• Choose some music that has a clear beat with a cadence. Pick a track that lasts from 10 to 20 minutes.
• Start with the warm up. In the event that you don’t have the foggiest idea about any moves, you can ask your kid to run or power walk, bounce, jump on one foot and afterward on the other, and do jumping jacks.
• Write it down later so you can remember it for the next time.
• To help your child learn new high-impact moves, you can watch a vigorous class on TV or ask the PE instructor at the school to help your child with his moves.
• Continue to add a variety of moves into the routine and test your child’s routine.

Pretense is Science not Play

Summary: Most people might frown at the much ignored fact that a child’s play is not really a play; it is something more than the fun-oriented activities. Pretend play is the deepest realm of play, which can be explored in the early stages of life. However, unfortunately, parents do not prefer their kids having a pretend conversation on the phone or tête-à-tête with an invisible friend at a pretend doll house tea party.

Pretend play can be characterized as a sort of play where kids acknowledge and figure out parts, and afterward act them out. It is a period when they get through the dividers of reality, profess to be somebody or something other than what’s expected of them, and sensationalize circumstances and activities to oblige the parts they have decided to play. Keeping in mind this kind of play may be seen as paltry by some, it remains an indispensable piece of the formative learning process by permitting kids to create abilities in academic subjects such as mathematics, spatial reasoning and arts.

Imagining that a banana is a phone

So you found your kid with a banana to his ear, and apparently he was in a deep conversation with a fragment of his imagination; somebody clearly beyond what your imagination could decipher. A sudden thunder of panic ripples across your body and you think maybe it’s time to see the therapist. For parents, it can be troubling that their kid is involved with somebody unseen. According to the growing body of research, it is completely normal, in fact, healthy for children to engage in pretend play. When children engage in pretend play, they are actually finding ways to express themselves. Pretense teaches kids behavioral traits that are impossible to teach through academic tasks.

Here’s what’s happening when your child engages in a pretend phone call:

Child: Hello?

(pause)

Child: I am alright. How are you?

(Pause)

When a child pauses between the conversation with an imaginative friend, he is basically allowing the time for the imaginative person to respond. This shows that his imagination is at work.

How Pretend Play can Help Children Learn?

Imaginative play can help children in a lot of ways. Here are some of the benefits that a child can garner from dramatic play:

Youngsters find out about themselves and the world. Imaginative play is how youngsters find out about their preferences and abhorrences, their hobbies, and their capacities. They try different things with pretending and work to bode well out of what they’ve watched. And this is something a play structure or a commercial playground equipment cannot edify.

Kids work out confounding, terrifying, or new life issues. Through these pretends, youngsters get to be more agreeable and readied forever occasions in a safe manner. Youngsters regularly utilize imagine play to work out more individual testing life occasions as well, whether it is adapting to a disease in the family, or the nonattendance of a guardian or separate.

Kids create essential complex social and higher request speculation aptitudes. Imaginative play is even more important than the physical learning that comes from outdoor playground equipment; it obliges propelled thinking techniques, correspondence, and social abilities.

Kids develop social and enthusiastic knowledge. Knowing how to peruse meaningful gestures, perceive and manage feelings, arrange and alternate, and participate in a long haul action that is commonly advantageous are no simple undertakings.

Kids orchestrate information and use that information to develop profound abilities. Since learning and kid advancement doesn’t happen in discrete pockets of time or amid confined exercises, children need a chance to mix their abilities with outside information together.

Creating a Culture of Well-Being: What Can We do?

Summary: With the escalating trend of computer activity and sedentary life choices, our children are increasingly falling into the black pit of obesity that offers no way out. According to a report published by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, more than one third of children in America were obese in the year 2012.[1] This number has significantly escalated in the past few years and there is a possibility that obesity will take its toll on more children in the coming years.

Do your kids walk around with layers of fat and cellulite? Lack of physical activity can increase fat accumulation in the body that can ultimately lead to bulky appearance. So what can we do? We cannot just sit around and watch our kids become a victim of deadly corpulence. This post will look at the various possibilities that can help us find ways to tackle with the growing trend of sedentary lifestyle and obesity.

Why we need more Physical Activity?

Before we jump ahead, it is important to highlight why do we really need to introduce more physical activity into our kids’ lives. It is no mystery that moving not only keeps the body in shape, but also keeps the skeletal and muscular structure strong. Good posture is the result of strong skeletal and muscular configuration, and is a key to healthy physical life. By promoting physical health, we are ensuring that our children

In the year 2013, the First Lady, Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move” program for schools to promote physical education. The program aims to provide better opportunities for children to learn better at playgrounds for enhanced overall health. This is a great step towards eliminating obesity, and in order to make sure that we take part in initiatives like the one mentioned above, it is important that we start taking physical education seriously.

Ideas for Enhanced Physical Activity

I have put together a list of ideas that can help us enhance the physical activity in our children:

• Be flexible about the physical activities and allow kids to participate in school events that encourage hard core activities.
• Encourage kids to walk to school if the distance is only by a few miles.
• Set physical challenges for children that need to be met every day.
• Engage kids with home-based physical activities such as backyard volleyball and hide and seek.
• Learn about the age-appropriate commercial playground equipment and makes sure that kids have the chance to use it.
• Promote public safety of parks and playgrounds.
• Take part in supporting government programs that promote physical education.
• Encourage movement-based learning in schools. Parent teacher meetings are a great way to correspond with the school staff for better physical education system.
• Encourage participation in intramural sports.

Promoting Physical Activity through Better Playgrounds

Playgrounds are the sanctuary of both structured and unstructured play activities. Whether it’s a simple outdoor playground equipment or a barren land with nothing but tree twigs and deserted junk, physical activity is born anywhere where two kids put their minds together. However, by providing better, well-structured playgrounds with ample resources can help children increase their activity level on the playground.

Your kids health is far more important than any academic venture, so make sure that physical education is the top priority when it comes to child development.

[1] http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.html