You could also encourage your children to ride their bikes to school.
If your child loves playing video games, encourage them to play games that involve movement – like dancing video games, bowling video games, tennis video games, or other types of video games that promote movement and activity. Alternatively, if you allow your child to watch television, you could tell them to do something active during the commercial breaks (like jumping jacks or running in place).
It doesn’t even need to be a dog. Cleaning out the fish tank can easily be re-defined from a routine chore to something that your child is doing to make the fish happy.
Swimming Running Skating or skateboarding Dancing Riding bikes
Push-ups, sit-ups, or pull-ups Gymnastics Climbing
Running Jumping rope Playing basketball, volleyball, or tennis Skipping
Make sure your child is physically healthy enough for exercise. Check with your child’s doctor if you have concerns about your child’s health that may affect his or her ability to be active. It could also be that your child does not feel they can participate in sports or other pursuits because of a perceived lack of skill, embarrassment, or they are being bullied. That needs to be addressed before you can begin to encourage your child to be more active.
For example, if your child knows that every Saturday morning the family takes a trip to the park and several evenings a week you will go on walks together, they will be less likely to protest.
Encouragement through understanding your child’s interests has to be central to what you are trying to achieve. Only that way will your child begin to understand that they want to do a given activity for themselves and not to please you.
Of course, not all families have the same financial situation, which could limit opportunities for recreation. If you can’t afford to pay for sports classes for your child, try to take advantage of programs in your community. Your local city council or local authority will usually have a program of free events that you can show your child. However, having too many opportunities to participate in may cause confusion and lead to inactivity in your child. In these cases you may need to talk to your child to help them tease out what it is they would most like to do.
Playing sports, going on walks, going to the park, and engaging in active games with your children (instead of leaving them to play on their own) are great ways to keep the activities fun. [9] X Trustworthy Source National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Research and education center within the National Institutes of Health Go to source Make sure that you are encouraging your child to have some play time outside whenever the weather is nice enough for it.
