5 Ways To Encourage Your Kids To Be More Active

Kids need to be more active every day to promote healthy growth and development. Establishing healthy lifestyle patterns at an early age will be brought with them until adulthood. Children can cope with stress through physical activity, such as playing and exercise. How can you encourage your kids to engage in physical activities more often than playing online video games or watching TV?  

Below are some ways to encourage your children to be more active.  

1. Be A Role Model  

Children tend to look up to their parents and people with authority. The physical activities you do greatly influence your children. Therefore, it’s important to set a good example by being more active yourself.  

Show your children that you love to exercise and to be outdoors. In this way, they can adapt to your healthy lifestyle and become more active as they join you in your physical activities while growing up. 

Learn more about setting a good example as a parent and other ways to enhance your parenting skills at theparentingdaily.co.uk. 

2. Set A Schedule  

Being consistent can help you establish good habits that will benefit you and your kids. Set a time for the family to do physical activities together. 

Here’s a sample schedule you might want to consider to help encourage your children to become more active: 

• Morning: Initiate an early morning exercise activity consisting of stretching, walking, and running. You can also engage in backyard play such as climbing, swinging, and hide and seek.  
• After Lunch: Everybody can take a nap after lunch to energize the body.  
• Afternoon: Involve your children in some household chores to get them moving. This activity can also help them develop discipline when it comes to cleanliness and organization. 

3. Supervise Children in a Home Playground 

Make it more fun by installing a home playground where children can release their high energies. Children love playgrounds because they come with swing sets, bucket swings, climbers, and slides. You can encourage your kids to be more active if they have playsets at home. 

The health benefits your children can obtain outweigh the cost of building a playground. You can build a private playground in your backyard with a simple playset. For sophisticated equipment, leave the installation to the professionals. 

Here are some tips when supervising children in a playground: 

• Instruct your children to leave bikes, toys, and bags away from the play area, so no one trips over them. 
• Never allow your children to use wet playground equipment because moisture can make the surfaces slippery. 
• Check your backyard playground equipment before using it because it can become uncomfortably hot. Inspect metal slides, steps, and handrails. Contact burns can occur within seconds if they’re hot to the touch. 
• Before playtime, ask your children to wear clothes without cords or drawstrings and necklaces. They could be caught on the play equipment and strangle a child accidentally. 

4. Introduce New Activities  

Children love new games and activities with an element of surprise. You can research exciting new physical activities and introduce them to your kids. Add more excitement by giving cool prizes. In this way, they’ll always anticipate doing great activities with you.  

Look at these examples of new activities you can try with your children: 

• Costume Activities: Make role-playing more fun by buying costumes for your children, such as costumes of their favorite superheroes or cartoon character. You can also join this activity wearing your own costume. Run, tug, and have fun in your play area with your children wearing these cool costumes. 
• Yoga: This exercise can be new to your children. If they’re older enough to follow instructions, then you can teach them the basics.  
• Personal Childhood Experiences: You can introduce games you used to play when you were a child. Share your personal experience that your children can relate to and teach them how to do it. This activity also promotes a better parent-child relationship. 

5. Explain The Benefits  

As early as childhood, it’s important to explain things to your children. Now more than ever, children are more informed because of the accessible information they see online and watch on TV. They should know the importance of activity before you get their trust and attention to doing things you want them to do. 

You can think of other ways to encourage your children to become more active. Show them that you’re enjoying the workout and physical activities so they can also do the same. Instill self-discipline and avoid boredom by introducing new activities every time. Make physical activities unforgettable, productive, and fun for children to entice doing them.