It’s a familiar challenge for many parents. Kids spending too much time sitting still in front of iPads or their computers. Hours go by in a blink of an eye and next thing you know, your kid hasn’t moved for half a day.
With research indicating that active kids concentrate better, have better test scores, as well as better mood in general, it’s not only better for their health to make sure everyday there are some physical activities in your kids day.
But you don’t need to schedule a gym visit for your kid each day to reap the benefits. “Physical activities” can be done around the house and sometimes without your kid being more than a few meters from their precious iPads. Also, even five or ten minutes away from the screens will already make a difference.
Here are some simple tips and suggestions that you can put in place today and won’t take more than 10 minutes.
Garden Quest
If you are lucky enough to have a garden, getting them out and about there has multiple benefits of not just physical activities, but also fresh air as well as possibility of finding new perspectives. Try these for starters:
• Get your kid to go out and find “five-of-a-kind”. They can go out with their phones (big assumption that they have one, but we are trying to get them away from their iPads so…) and snap five different flowers, animals, colors, etc…
• Hide five items of a kind in the garden and get your kids to go out and find them. They can’t get back to their iPads until they have found all of them.
Bouncy Ball “catch”
This one requires some participation from you, but it’s quite minimal.
For five minutes, get your kid to catch a very bouncy ball. The trick is not to get them to catch but to chase the ball as it bounces around the room. They will be running and bending over and before they know it they have done a hundred squats and burpies!
Move to Play
This is more of a scheme than actual activity. This requires you to put down the house rule. For example, your kid can get one hour of “play time” credit for every 10 minutes away from the screen. It’s minimal, but will make a big difference from three hour straight in front of the iPad’s screen. They need to turn off the device and go and do something else. That means they are not looking at a screen. It’s a break from screen time, not just a break from games on their iPad). As a bonus, sometimes they will get so involved with doing something else that they forget to back to their iPads for another hour!
Beat Sabre
If you can’t beat them, join them.
If you really can’t get your kids away from gaming (you really should), how about games that get your kids moving?
Few games are as motivating and sweat inducing as “Beat Sabre” on the Oculus VR system. It does require you to purchase the Oculus, but the combination of immersive virtual reality experience together with wielding a virtual light saber will keep your kids sweating until you want to have a go too.
For more on the benefits of physical activities on the health and intelligence of your kid, try reading these:
• Brain: Why exercise boosts IQ
• Associations between daily physical activity and executive functioning in primary school-aged children
• More evidence that exercise can boost mood
