Are your kids getting enough exercise? Here are some ways to encourage good fitness habits as summer begins:

• Make it fun: Help your child find a fitness activity which is enjoyable and suits abilities. It is better to search for the right one than to force programs on children.
• Walk it off: When it is safe and appropriate, encourage children to walk to school and friends’ houses. Better still, set a good example yourself by walking wherever you can and inviting your kids along.
• Let your kids join health clubs or community groups: Fitness gatherings are better than pot sessions, no doubt. Do not discourage your teenage children when they have joined one already.
• Discourage excessive TV: Too much TV viewing is not only bad for the eyes and the body due to the television’s radioactive effects; TV programs nowadays, if not primarily intended for children, are more often destructive to children’s cultural development.
• Offer simple rewards: Your child needs positive feedback to maintain good exercise habits. As in the nursery school you may award stickers or stars to the enthusiastic child; display the progress (on the family’s bulletin board or) on the refrigerator (with healthful food and juices as rewards, too).
• Enroll your kids in swimming classes or swim clinics taught by qualified instructors during summer. Kids can start learning at about age 4. Special classes are also offered for infants or toddlers.
• Let your children help you with the household chores. Not only that it teaches them responsibilities, it also helps them to keep on moving instead of turning themselves into couch potatoes.




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