7 Tips to Enhance Fitness in Children

We’re becoming an alarmingly unhealthy country, with a large chunk of the population susceptible to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other lifestyle ailments. What is even more disconcerting is the fact that even children are falling into this trap of bad lifestyle choices leading to health issues. A study conducted by Jarma Wellness revealed that of the 1, 76,240 lacs children surveyed between the ages of 2-17, 30.4% of them had abnormal BMI, and 19.1% were either obese or overweight.

However, the good news is that you can turn the tide by taking appropriate preventive and remedial measures. 

The Heritage School, best ICSE School in Uttarakhand, shares some valuable tips to get your children fit and hale and hearty.

Make It Part of Daily Routine

Make no compromises here. Physical activity will produce concrete results only when it is done regularly. Even a little can go a long way, like a light post-dinner walk with the family is good not just for fitness but for family bonding as well.

Turn To Sports

You want to make your child healthy and fit. Teach some sport that will keep him active and strong. This will also make him learn various new skills. Swimming, basketball, martial arts softball and tennis are interesting choices.

Healthy Diet

For a strong and healthy body and mind, physical activity and a well-balanced diet go hand in hand. Eating junk food in controlled proportions once in a while is fine but try to not stock unhealthy food items in your home. Feed kids natural and organic fruits and vegetables.

Limit Screen Time

Tech devices like phones, television, laptops, and tabs provide needless distraction besides also harming children’s delicate vision and making them lazy. So you need to exercise a fair degree of parental control by not permitting children more than 1-2 hours of screen time daily and encouraging them to be more physically active.

Get Them Outdoors

The playground is your child’s best friend where he/she are always running and jumping around playing fun games with their friends. You could also try going on a light hiking trip with your family which is good for fitness and will also get your child in close touch with nature.

Sufficient Sleep

Children need 8-10 hours of sleep every night to be well-rested physically and mentally and wake up fresh and energetic the next morning. If your kid is too tired, it is unlikely he/she will get much exercise and his eating patterns will also be disturbed.

Counted among the top 10 schools in Dehradun, we hope this blog will encourage you to take charge of your child’s health and set him on the path of physical and mental fitness.

Teaching New Vocabulary to Children

A rich vocabulary forms one of the many building blocks of language. Understanding of words is essential as it greatly enhances the child’s communication enabling him to express his thoughts, ideas, and emotions more articulately. 

The Heritage School, best ICSE School inUttarakhand, has come up with a few tips to keep in mind when introducing children to new words:

Avoid Overdose of Words

Slow and steady is the way to go when teaching new words to children. This is because if you try to bombard them with a deluge of words they have not heard before they are more likely to lose interest in the entire activity rendering all your efforts ineffective. Introducing 5 or 6 words every week is a good start.

Repetition and Multiple Meanings

A word has to be repeated multiple times before it finally gets registered in the child’s memory. Ideally, parents need to repeat a word 4-12 times. However, it has to be used in different kinds of sentences and contexts for the child to understand it properly. Moreover, some words have more than one meaning so these have to be explained accordingly.

Give a Thorough Explanation of Meaning

A mere verbal explanation of the words will not suffice. The meaning of the words has to be explained comprehensively, creatively and concretely without leaving any room for confusion. Visual demonstrations work well in this regard as they give children something to relate to. Show them pictures and illustrations. You can also use flashcards. Act it out.

Encourage Writing and Speaking

For a proper understanding of words, it is essential to ask children to spell it out verbally and in writing as well. This ensures that they are getting the spellings and pronunciation right. When you say a word, encourage them to write it down. When children read a difficult word, ask them to read it out loud.

It will take time to build up a rich and varied vocabulary. But The Heritage School, the top school in Dehradun, believes you should have patience till you start seeing fruitful results, and who knows maybe you could end up learning a few words yourself!