FITNESS & ACTIVITY
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Ready, Steady, Go - Kids in Action!
Kids will jump at the chance to be active, especially if they know they’ll have fun! They’ll learn to love staying fit if you encourage them to find activities that they will enjoy.
Daily physical activity is the foundation for a long, healthy life. Research shows that frequent outdoor play promotes a more active child for the future; this would have to be one of the greatest gifts you can give your child – better physical & emotional health.
Helping children adopt an active lifestyle early will have a tremendous impact on their physical, intellectual and emotional development.
For children between birth and five physical activity is natural, children love to move. Children are delighted to have your company and your complete, undivided attention. Playing actively with them will be pleasurable for both of you. You don’t need to be an expert on physical education to promote your child’s daily physical activity, and you can play without paying.
Playing is learning for a child. Play fosters imagination and creativity as well as physical, social and emotional development. Play should never be used to just wile the day away or as a distraction for children. Children use all five senses during play to interact with the world around them. They thrive off every opportunity that is interesting and fun to them.
Physical Development
Preschool age children need several hours of unstructured movement every day. They should never be inactive for more than 60 minutes and toddlers need at least 30 minutes of structured activities, such as those demonstrated in the Eduplay Programs.
Ideally, you should encourage your child to participate in at least two or three activity sessions per day. Activity periods can be divided into smaller units of between 10 – 15 minutes each and you should choose activities for which they are developmentally ready to enjoy.
Infants’ muscles strengthen and continue to grow from birth into adulthood. The physical development of these muscles is essential for strength and health. Playing with building blocks or stacking and threading develop fine motor skills. Balancing, hopping, or sack racing develops gross motor skills.
Cognitive development
Cognitive, or thinking skills are developed when a child uses reasoning and justification during play. While still young, children learn that something square will not fit through a round hole. Children practice practical mathematical skills, trial and error, and elimination during play.
Emotional and Social development
Make believe play and other types of dramatic play give children the opportunity to express feelings and emotions that they might be experiencing. Self-confidence, self-esteem and a sense of self-worth, as an individual or within a group, are developed during social and emotional play.
Playing in groups allows children to develop essential social skills that last a lifetime. Children learn about relationships with people and test these skills during their play.
Play behaviour is grouped into a few different types and is directly related to the materials and tools of play. The different types are interrelated and often overlap and any given play behaviour fall into any six of these categories:
1. Creative Play
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we’re educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence.
Sir Ken Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with
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