As grownups we know that getting out of the house and moving our bodies more is often beneficial and makes us feel good. However, as a kid that is tired and just wants to play video games after school, it can be hard to find the motivation. As parents we need to make the concept of exercise more exciting, so here are some tips on getting your kid interested in exercise.
Reward it
Children love the idea of winning prizes and being rewarded for a job well done, so why not make exercise part of this? Younger children could respond well to a reward chart type system and older children are usually open to a little bribery. Talking to them about doing things together as a family and rewarding them for trying to types of exercise or achievements they have within the team they’re on is often enough to get their interest. You don’t have to give them a physical reward every time they exercise, but ensuring that their effort is acknowledged and helping them earn points towards a reward is a definite way to help motivate them and the whole family.
Make it Exciting
Without a doubt making exercise is exciting is one way to get the whole family interested. After all, what sounds more tempting – ‘right family, let’s go for our daily exercise’ or ‘right family, let’s go roller skating’? Both options get everyone out of the house and encourages them to move their bodies more, but one is likely to have everyone much more interested. Things like inline skates are usually pretty affordable, otherwise, a football or membership to the local leisure centre for swimming sessions can work well too.
Set Challenges
One thing that kids love is trying to beat their siblings at different tasks, so setting challenges and seeing who can be the winner at different things is a great motivator. You can mix up the activities that you challenge them to do so that all of your kids have a fair chance of being the winner; but lots of these can involve running around outside which means that it also gets them exercising, even if they don’t realise it. Kids love to be the winner and having bragging rights of being that days champion so its a great way to get everyone involved.
If you have any ideas on how to get your kid interested in exercise we’d love to hear them
*Collaborative post