We all know that getting up and being active is an important part of everyone’s lives – especially for our children.
By supporting children to exercise and move on a regular basis, we can build their strength and stamina, support their mental health, and even help boost their concentration in school. Children and young people should be exercising for a minimum of 60 minutes per day in line with the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines.
We recognise there are many barriers that may impact our ability to be as active as we want to be. This page features our five top tips to help you and your children get more active.
Top tips
- Focus on fun
Being active is fun! There are so many ways to be active that you can find the way which is most fun for you and your child. It might be a walk in the forest, a scoot around the local park, or a sing and dance at home. All of these are positive and increase our activity levels in a fun and manageable way.
- Involve the child or young person in decision making
When children are active and moving, it’s always important to ask them what their interests are. ‘How do you want to be active today?’ can be a great opening question to begin the day.
Some children might find it hard to communicate what they enjoy or want to do, so you may want to offer a small selection of activities to see what they enjoy most.
You could also visit the Youth Sport Trust who have created a toolkit offering guidance around gathering young people’s voices and supporting them to be more active. You can download the toolkit here.
- Explore ways to build movement into everyday routines and activities
Introducing movement into your everyday life can be a great way to boost your child’s activity levels. For example, you might park farther away from school or the shop to encourage a longer walk, or leave earlier and cycle, walk or scoot to school.
Active travel is a simple way to introduce movement into your daily life and combine it with your schedule.
- Get active together
Why not go out together? Being active with your child or young person is a great way to bond over a shared interest and role model the positive outcomes of being active.
- Explore local opportunities and support
Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire all have a wide range of local offers which are focused on getting young people more active – click here for more information.
