Stop With the Sodas
Make Them Move
Getting off the couch and out the door will do everyone good. Turn off the TV and take a walk together, sign your kids up for an after-school dance class or have them throw a football around with their friends. Kids who watch more than two hours of TV a day are at a greater risk for problems like social difficulties, excessive weight gain, trouble sleeping or falling asleep and even impaired school performance. Not fun!
Bonkers Over Breakfast
This is a great habit to instill now. Show your kids that breakfast is key for their brains and energy and it helps keep them strong. Whether they are rushed in the morning or not, make the effort to get them to eat something, especially if it’s a fiber-rich meal that will decrease the risk of heart disease and diabetes. Research shows that starting the day without breakfast correlated with four times the likelihood of obesity.
Tasty Tints
We eat with our eyes, that goes especially for kids. Offer your kids foods of different colors. For them it’s fun but actually, it has health benefits too. Make an effort to offer your kids a range of fruits and vegetables of different colors – green, white, yellow, red, orange, even blue.
Focus on Friends
School-aged children need friendships for healthy development, according to the published research. Valuable social skills such as communication and problem solving are learned while playing with friends and these may even affect and improve their performance at school.
Resonating Resilience
Building your kids’ healthy self-esteem is no easy feat but it’s crucial for their well being. It’s easy for them to get discouraged but learning resilience after setbacks is important for staying positive. This leads to better relationships in the future.
Screens and Sleep
Sleep in crucial for everyone. Kids require a good night’s sleep for natural growth and development. Screen time before bed can affect your child’s sleep and may hinder it. Screens can stimulate instead of wind down, blue light from phones and tablets might suppress melatonin and delay the feeling of drowsiness and being connected online may tempt your child to chat with friends or play games. Avoiding screen time an hour before bedtime allows kids to naturally fall asleep easily and sleep soundly through the night.
