It can be difficult trying to motivate your children to put down their tablet or laptop, to pick up a ball and play outside in the fresh air. Sometimes, most of their friends will be in the online world after school than they will be offline.
This can make it hard to force them to switch off their technology, as you want them to socialize as best as they can to make friends, but you’d rather they did this in person. This, in combination with children being notoriously difficult or picky eaters, makes it seem impossible for many parents to find a balance between their family’s food choices and active lifestyles.
We’ve found three different ways to inspire you when trying to keep your children healthy and happy, by encouraging them to live a better lifestyle.
1. Combine Technology with Fitness
Believe it or not, technology and games consoles can actually offer a chance for your children to get off of the sofa. Experts have combined the virtual world with the physical world, to encourage everyone to get active from their own home.
You’re probably familiar with home workouts delivered via YouTube or live streaming services, but these are usually aimed at adults. Skillastics offers virtual and in-person group workouts, so that getting active is both a way for your children to mingle with friends, but also keep fit.
This can be done either from home, where it is easier to slot this session into your family’s busy schedule, or in-person.
2. Listen and Involve
Whether it’s cooking dinner for the whole family from scratch, or working on your own fitness regime, you should invite your children to do these activities with you. Children love to be involved and perform ‘adult’ activities because it makes them feel grown up.
If they know that you’re asking them to help out with chopping vegetables, they feel useful and important. Not only is this an excellent bonding exercise, but they will learn about nutrition and eating healthy too. They are more likely to eat the vegetables they have prepared than if you’d just made them for their dinner!
Additionally, taking part in workouts together can show them that keeping active is what adults need to do to and it can be fun! These workouts don’t have to be intense, but adding in music or dancing can be excellent ways to get moving with your children while having plenty of laughter!
3. Reward Systems
Just like you might reward good behavior or performances at school, you should create a reward chart at home that commends your child for choosing an apple over a chocolate bar, or sticking to their ‘online’ time slots so that you can monitor the amount of time they’re inside and not running around outside. This can help to instill healthy habits into your child, just like you might do when you want them to encourage them to stop behaving badly.
Whilst it can be a slog to get the whole family moving and keeping up healthy habits, it is important that you lay the foundations for your kid’s future, otherwise they may suffer the consequences.
