How to Exercise with Your Preschooler

Establishing a healthy routine with your preschooler can be an easy and fun activity for you and your child. Make it easy, make it fun, and you’re sure to see plenty of healthy results.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Touch your toes. This is a basic preschool exercise that can be a lot of fun as well as increase flexibility.

2. Do a number of jumping jacks. Have your preschooler try this one out by explaining to open up arms and legs like an X, then put legs together and arms at her sides. Jumping jacks are a challenging coordination movement for preschoolers, but there are still benefits in jumping and following directions until she perfects the move.

3. Sit and stretch, including variations on the typical stretches. Put legs together and your preschooler can creep his fingers down to his toes. Ask your preschooler to give each knee a kiss, then open up the legs wide and stretch one leg at a time.

4. Practice “butterfly knees.” While sitting, show your preschooler how to touch the bottoms of her feet together, with knees opened to the sides. This easy preschool exercise allows her to flap her legs like the motion of a butterfly.

5. Roll head gently by moving to the side, looking down, and moving to the other side. This can be done either standing or sitting.

6. Shrug shoulders for a fun and silly stretch. First relax the shoulders, then shrug them up to your ears, before returning to the starting position.

7. Practice balancing activities such as standing on one leg and counting how long he can stay balanced. Your preschooler will likely be challenged by this at first, but eventually he will become more stable.

Tips & Warnings

• Incorporate one or several of these activities into your preschooler’s day for a healthier lifestyle.
• With concerns about inactive kids today, the best defense is to introduce fitness and healthy eating to your young preschooler, with the intention of building a fit lifestyle throughout their childhood and into adulthood.
• For more fun and exercise, let the animal world guide you. There are plenty of easy preschool exercises that can be borrowed from animals, such as waddling, flapping, hopping and leaping.
• Your preschooler may be more capable than you think. If he can’t do a certain exercise now, practice until he better develops coordination and balance.

[msilence]

on 9/29/2008 Hi,
Please check out the following web site for additional help. We offer a FREE physical education activity for preschoolers each month and a free quarterly newsletter.


Thank you,


Michele Silence
http://www.kid-fit.com
[phone]


See Free P.E. Activity idea here: http://www.kid-fit.com/free_pe_activities.html

The new quarterly issue of KID-FIT News is also available, go to: http://www.kid-fit.com/kfnews.pdf