Benefits of Exercise in Children

v  Helps Control Blood Pressure

v  Helps Control cholesterol

v  Decrease the Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes

v  Helps Kids Have a Better Outlook on Life

v  Sleep Better

v  Handle Life Challenges Better

v  Helps Kids Test Better

v  Helps Improve the Immune System

v  Strengthens the Heart and Lungs, and the Rest of the Cardiovascular System

v  Helps in the Prevention of Heart Disease

v  Better Control Over Body Fat

v  Stronger Bones

v  Stronger Muscles

v  Better Transportation of Nutrients to the Body’s Cells

v  Helps Them Feel More Energized (Gets Rid of that Sluggish Feeling)

v  Helps the Body Eliminate the Toxins

v  Helps Boost Metabolism

v  Improves Memory

v  Increases the Release of Beneficial Hormones

v  Helps Improve Concentration

v  Decreases Anxiety

v  Reduces Depression

v  Helps Develop Self-Esteem

v  Helps Develop Confidence

v  Helps Develop Social Skills (Leadership and Empathy)

v  Improves Reflexes

v  Improves Coordination

v  Helps Improves Grades

Exercise and Children

There is a lot to benefit from exercising. From being physically fit it also helps control blood pressure, cholesterol, decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and helps kids have a better outlook on life itself. Studies have proven that kids who are physically fit sleep better at night and are able to handle challenges in life, both physical and emotional. It even helps them test better. Right now with my excited two year old my favorite has to be the sleeping better. If I get Thomas out and about during the day he will sleep through the night no problem.

There are three elements of fitness:

Endurance
Strength
Flexibility

Endurance is when the heart beats faster and you breathe harder. This is developed through aerobic exercises – like playing tag or hoola hooping. When done regularly it helps strengthen the heart and approve the body’s ability to deliver oxygen to all its cells. Strength training of course strengthens muscles and tones the body. A lot of muscles are easier to develop during childhood then they are during adulthood, such as the fine motor skills. Flexibility is developed when kids so much as stretch to get a toy just out of reach. And in my personal experience it really helps your body relax.

Toddler       à 1 ½ hours minimum daily activity à 30 minutes planned daily physical activity AND 60     minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)

Preschooler   à 2 hours minimum daily activity à 60 minutes planned daily activity AND 60 minutes unstructured physical activity (free play)

School Age à 1 hour or more minimum daily activity à Broken up into bouts of 15 minutes or more

 

According to this chart of activity from the National Association for sport and physical education (NASPE)… I over exercise my child. I’ve never had a “structured” amount of exercise; I just play games like tag and follow the leader, or chase our birds around the yard. But maybe going for a walk would classify as structured activity for him. We go for a walk on a regular basis, especially when he just can’t get calmed down and we are nearing bedtime.

Ways to Sneak in Exercise

I’m always trying to think of new ways to get Thomas up and moving. Since he is part Lakota there is a higher chance of him developing childhood obesity/diabetes.  I’m a pretty firm believer that exercise will help prevent this. Especially since I still let him eat sugary treats. That and there are all sorts of good benefits from exercise. My favorite is probably the fact that he goes to sleep easier and sleeps better if I help him run off all that pempted up energy.

1)      The newest way I have found is letting him chase our geese and ducks. They can’t fly or anything yet, but they run away from him. At least they did at first now they’re a little more used to him and just kind of quickly walk away in another direction. But even if they do that then he just sort of runs a circle around them – all while giggling.

2)      Kicking a ball around the yard. My sister and I will actually kick it and then he will run after it picks it up and play a sort of keep away with us. Put it down and kick it himself. He really gets into it if you pretend run up to the ball with him and let him get to it just before you reach it yourself.

3)      Follow the leader. If he doesn’t get to be the leader then it’s a good source of exercise. If he does then you mostly just walk around in a circle. But if I lead and he follows then I can get him to scream, shake his butt, jump around, and run in a circle…or whatever comes to mind at that moment.

4)      Yoga – I love doing yoga. It gets all of my ache – y bones stretched out and feeling better. And after Thomas seeing me do it, now he tries to mimic the movements. I really should record it while it’s still cute.

5)      Dancing – Play some music (preferably what I want to listen to) and dance around to it.

6)      Swimming – I put him in a life jacket and a toddler floating chair type of thing, and let him kick his legs around to chase me or my sister around. He giggles and “swims” and wears himself out. Sometimes we take him out of the floater and we’ve been working on learning to swim.

The Dirty Bed

The Average bed contains over 6 billion dust mites. After reading this little fun fact, it makes me want to seriously clean my bed(s). I saw on Pinterest that you can scent vinegar ( one of my favorite cleaning agents) by putting it into a mason jar with some orange peelings, leaving it set someplace for like a week or two and then pouring the vinegar into a spray bottle. I’m assuming you remove the orange peels. I was excited to use that but then something make me think that would get more dirty then killing the bed bugs and freshening the mattress. So I had to do some research.

Baking soda is supposed to work great. You can scent it with some essential oils if you want, put it in a strainer and sprinkle all over the bed. Then vacuum up. I could try that. I’m just not sure if my vacuum would get all of the baking soda out of the mattress or not. I’d hate to leave a bunch of soda just sitting there…getting embedded.

Another way would be to use upholstery cleaner; they’re supposed to be gentile enough since they’re made for these types of things. But I don’t have any of that on hand….now do I have a water proof vacuum to suck the cleaner and water back out of the mattress.

Some Tips to a Clean Mattress:

Vacuum the mattress every month or so.

Wash your bedding regularly.

Get a good mattress protector.  I’m not sure where we bought my mattress protector but I wash it with my bedding every time I wash the sheets.

Flip foam mattresses regularly.

Use a water proof cover if you have kids or pets. We bought mine from the furniture store when we bought the mattress. Again I just throw that into the washer with my bedding to clean it.

You can wash a mattress with cleaners, and get it wet, but you have to make sure it dries completely before remaking the bed. Otherwise it could start to grow mold, or fungus. Gross.

World Ocean’s Day June 8th

I’m always looking for inspiration for more things to teach to Thomas. I often catch myself taking the things I know for granted, and somehow there’s a little thought that gets stuck in there that he just knows it too. But that’s not the case, obviously. So I try to always teach him something new. And then keep covering the new stuff that we’ve learned because he can easily forget it. So we have yet to discuss the oceans. Even though sometimes he will watch Octonaughts. I think that’s such a cute show.

Ways to Teach Toddlers about the Ocean

·         Shells - But a bag of sea shells and let him explore them. You could do art projects with them. Color pictures of shells. Maybe make imprints of the shells in some play dough. There are a ton of ideas here. Buy a big one that you can hear the ocean in as well and allow them to listen to it. If you’re lucky enough to live by a beach, then go looking for shells. We don’t, so I’ll have to buy a bag.

·         Print out 2 pictures of the ocean. Make them big enough that the kids can easily place things onto it. Lay one down on the floor or the table or whatever. Past the other picture to some spare card board. Having spare cardboard boxes lay around your house is normal right? After the glue dries, cut certain parts of the picture out. Then you can help you toddler play a matching game. This will help them recognize some creatures, and some vegetation that live in the ocean.

·         Use construction paper to create pictures of the oceans. Depending on how old you child is, they could help cut out the pictures and glue them down. For Thomas I’ll have to have these types of things pre-cut (Ex: sea weed out of green construction paper). You could even find items that you could use to make a 3D picture. (Use some of the shells that you bought)

·         Turn your living room (or a hallway) into the ocean. Personally I would like to turn a hallway into the ocean. Put some blue lights in (or hang something over them that would have them reflect a water type of glow). Put pictures all over the place of things found in the ocean. Maybe put some stuffed animals or little character plastic animals around in there. Scatter sea shells on the floor. Put whatever else you can find/think of that would help teach them about the ocean. And then take them on an expedition through the ocean.

·         Put up a tent. Plug in the projector. Find some YouTube videos of exploring the ocean. Sit in the tent with your child, use your imaginations to pretend that you are explorers in a submarine, and enjoy the ride. Maybe you want to take some pictures.

·         If you have the opportunity to go to an aquarium then I say use this as an excuse to do something for family time. Take lots of pictures. It could me a mini-vacation for the family. And what’s better yet you child will learn something new along the way.

·         For a counting activity find pictures of a variety of ocean creatures. Glue them to a poster board (preferably blue) Use a marker to write a number on the creature, and then draw bubbles coming from the creatures that match the number on the creature.

·         Fill the tub up with water (or you could use a wading pool) and put foam ocean creatures in there. Then let your little one fish them out using a net or a strainer or whatever.

·         Counting with your sea shells – Gather up some plastic bowls ( I kept my Easter egg dying cups, but you could also use other plastic dishes or Styrofoam bowls or whatever you have) put a piece of paper in the bowl with a number from 1-10 in there. Let the kids put the appropriate amount of sea shells in each dish.

·         Buy a bag of colorful pompoms. Print out a picture of a sea creature of your choosing, and then color the picture in by gluing down the pompoms.

·         Make an octopus by rolling a piece of paper up the long way. Glue the edges so they stay put. About halfway down the piece of paper cut in the 8 “tentacles”, let the kids decorate their octopus.

·         Glue rice to a pre-cut out starfish. Make it more fun by coloring the rice first.

 

Have Fun!

10 Favorite Disney Songs to Use for Lullabies

    1)      A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

2)      Baby Mine

     3)      I will Always Be With You

4)      I Wouldn’t Have Nothing if I Didn’t Have You

5)      On My Way

6)      Lull-A-Bee (Pooh’s Lullaby)

7)      You Are My Sunshine

8)      You’ll Be In My Heart

    9)      When You Wish Upon A Star

   10)   Upendi