WARMUP:
A good warm-up is important to get your child's body ready for whatever exercise or activity you have planned that day. In general, a warm-up should involve all of the joints and major muscle groups of the body. When they are younger, the movements will be less complex and more focused on coordination of gross body movements. You can get their interest by playing games such as Simon Says or Red light - Green light. As they get older the warm-up exercises can become more complex, involve specific skills, or movements that involve any sports or activities of interest.. The warm-up can be as simple as performing the classics, such as jumping jacks, bear crawl, crab walk, or duck walk as pictured below. Your child's specific interests are a great way to get them excited about joining in. For our kids, that means anything that involves lightsabers or improving their Jedi skills. It makes them excited and feeling like they are playing a game rather than getting physical activity or improving important coordination/body awareness skills. A warm-up only needs to last 5-10 minutes before moving on to the other planned activities. Some other examples of warm-up activities are:
-Marching in place
-Jogging in place
-Jumping/hopping in place
-Single leg jumping/hopping in place
-Arm circles
-Big arm claps in front, overhead, or behind the body
-Wacky jacks
-Leg kicks
-jumping rope
ACTIVITIES The activities should be fun in nature and involve the whole family. It can be as simple as practicing jumping rope, playing a game of hop-scotch or riding bikes. We often head to the park in order to create a variety of games than involve jumping, running or hand-eye coordination as well as other coordination skills. We use the equipment available to set up obstacle courses or races that are kids love to compete in with mom and dad. While they are young our main focus is to get them physically active and help them develop basic coordination and body awareness. We also use different toys lying around the house such as a ball, Frisbee, or of course lightsabers. | |