At your gymnastics center, you want to do more than provide one more “extracurricular activity” for the kids you serve: you want to help them establish healthy habits that will lead to lifelong physical fitness. In that endeavor, it’s important to not only understand what “physical fitness” entails but also the most significant areas of […]
Health
Gymnastics Center Goals: Developing Physical Fitness Goals for Kids, Part 1
When it comes to physical fitness, do you ever wonder exactly what it entails? Or to pose the question differently, what constitutes a healthy lifestyle or suitable fitness goals for children? Especially where kids are concerned, the obesity epidemic may be a significant symptom, but it’s also only a symptom of a more pervasive problem. […]
Avoiding Inversion Ankle Sprains
Did you know there’s a particular kind of ankle sprain that commonly affects both those who are athletic and those who have a more sedentary lifestyle? Inversion ankle sprains, which involve the ankle turning inward, often require physical therapy and take a decent amount of time for recovery. As a result, there’s plenty of information […]
Encouraging Healthy Habits in Your Childcare Center: Movement, Part 2
Movement is a healthy part of life for those of all ages (see Part 1), but it’s especially important for preschoolers. While educational standards soar, the youngest children are being robbed of the very thing that they need in order to lay the foundation for healthy emotional, social, and cognitive development. Exercise and Experience Many […]
Encouraging Healthy Habits in Your Childcare Center: Movement, Part 1
While seeing young children sitting quietly at desks and doing worksheets may seem like a great start to a successful academic career (see this previous post), that kind of setting is actually far from ideal for the developmental needs of young children. Instead, movement and sensory experiences provide children with what their bodies and brains […]
Encouraging Healthy Habits in Your Childcare Center: Imaginative Play
While it won’t make its way onto standardized tests or college entrance exams, movement is an important aspect of how children learn. Your childcare center has the important opportunity to help lay the foundation for later academic achievement by giving the children in your care opportunities to play, build, and create. While those kinds of […]
Incorporate Rest Time Into Your Daycare Center’s Daily Routine
Full-time childcare centers for kids aged five and under normally have at least one regularly scheduled daily rest time. This time for napping and relaxation is vital for a young child’s physical and emotional well-being. Overly tired children become distracted and irritable in much the same way as sleep-deprived adults. The major difference is that […]
Making Your Backyard Pool Disability Accessible, Part 4
Giving a disabled person the opportunity to spend time in your pool is a great way to show your care and concern for this large and sometimes neglected segment of our society (see Parts 1, 2 & 3). Whether it’s due to an accident, aging, or a genetic condition, disability can suddenly impact a person’s […]
Making Your Backyard Pool Disability Accessible, Part 3
Figuring out how to make adjustments to your pool so that it will be more accessible to your disabled friends and family members is a worthy goal (see Parts 1 & 2). Though it can seem like a daunting challenge at first, it really only takes three main steps: careful planning, wise selection of equipment, […]
Making Your Backyard Pool Disability Accessible, Part 2
Whether it’s sliding down a water slide, diving off the diving board, or simply plunging into the refreshing water from the pool’s edge, people without disabilities have a whole host of options for entering their pools. This isn’t the case, however, for the millions of people living with disabilities. Many of them simply have no […]