How many parents try to watch their diet? How many of us try to take a 30-minute walk each day, or try to exercise 3 days a week to a video tape? How many of us pay to belong to an exercise class of some sort? (step-aerobics, jazzercise, aerobic-boxing etc...) How many of us have thought that our kids can benefit from the structure and habit that we try to set for ourselves? Probably not very many unfortunately.
Kids need to make habits, and exercise is a good one! It will benefit them aerobically, cardiovascularly, and mentally. (Yes, I said mentally!) Believe it or not, children can be faced with many stressors in a day! (Adults who don't remember what it was like to be little, think of the pressure from trying to perform properly in school, inadvertent pressure we may put on our children, etc.)
It is true that in a public school setting, physical education is a factor in creating a habit of exercise, but most of the time, this is in the school setting only, and when children come home, they do not see the time that we parents take in trying to either create a habit ourselves or keep-up the habit of fitness that we have already created.
Ponder this: physical fitness is taught in a public school setting, even the extracurricular activities that so many children are hopefully taking part in. Does this teach them when they are done with school, that they should still be exercising as young adults? Or, does it teach them to think, "Gee, now that I have graduated, all this is over! I don't have to exercise either!" After all, they don't continue to study their math books, read their literature on a continual basis, or even exercise because it is conditioned as a part of schooling.
How many physical education teachers begin telling their students about the fact that what they are doing in class will be needed on a tri-weekly basis the rest of their lives? (I am sure there are some, but there are many as well who don't teach fitness for the future.) This is a beckon to those of you who might not have thought about this! Teach them to keep up the exercise habit!
Have your toddlers and older children exercise with you!
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