WHAT’S NEW?
- NEW Top Tips: Get Sensory with Food
- NEW Family Friendly Fact Sheet: Iron
- NEW and delicious recipes include: Breakfast Eggs, Beautiful Bulgar Wheat salads, Roasted Vegetables with Pasta and Phunky Frozen Fruits
The Recommendations
This is a question which often causes confusion. Some people think 30 minutes, others think 45 minutes, but for a school age child the recommendations have been set to “at least 1 hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity most days of the week, though preferably every day”.
A simple and effective way of getting your kids to carry out physical activity is to walk or bike to school, or even better you as a parent walk or bike with them.
The key here is that the recommendation is for moderate to vigorous physical activity, this does not have to mean high-intensity exercise classes for an hour a day! Moderate activity means any activity that makes your child breathe more heavily and makes their body get slightly warmer, but don't work them so hard that they can't talk at the same time as doing the activity.
Exercise does not have to mean complicated activities which involve loads of expensive gym equipment. Below are just a few ideas your child could do to meet their one hour a day recommendation;
Walk/bike to school
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Play games at break lunch time with their friends
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Join after school clubs – athletics, football, netball etc
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Family activities e.g. walking, biking, swimming etc.
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Help with gardening
The list is endless and there are loads you and your kids can do which is active. If you are having trouble getting your kids to be active and they do not like your suggestions, then ask them what they would like to do, playground games e.g. tag, piggy in the middle are always a good place to start to get your child in the mood to be active.
Let them feel they have input and are not being forced to carry out activities that you want to do. For ideas on how to encourage your child to do more physical activity, visit our tops tips and activities section of the site.