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Want Your Kids to Choose to Be Active?
Start Them Early!
By Laurie Dove
Kristin Kliewer knows the difference that movement can make to a young child.
She has seen each of her three children, now 8, 6 and 3, develop a love and knowledge of music by becoming physically active in a local Kindermusik program.
Kindermusik, a Greensboro, N.C.-based company, has developed a musical education program for infants, toddlers and older children that uses movement as a way to learn about music.
For Kliewer, of Newton, Kan., whose youngest child, Elise, has participated in the program since infancy, this movement has opened the door to a string of active, healthful choices for her children.
"All of my children are very active," she says. "They don't go anywhere without singing or dancing. At this young age, their work is play. One of the ways they experience music – and the world – is through movement."
Dr. Francie Ekengren, a family practice physician in Wichita, Kan., says because toddlers already are so active, they don't need an exercise program.
Dr. Ekengren instead encourages parents of her young patients to involve their kids in fun activities that also harness the power of a toddler's natural mobility. Programs like tumbling, gymnastics and swimming lessons are good sources of activity, as are trips to the park, zoo or playground.
Kliewer, like many parents, takes her children to the park for an afternoon of entertainment instead of parking them in front of a televised cartoon.
"I think they learn at an early age to be active," Kliewer says. "If you start young, it becomes a part of their lives. It becomes ingrained."
Dan Bruring, owner of a Midwest-based chain of gymnastic clubs, agrees.
"I've seen kids who start tumbling programs as soon as they can walk," he says. "It gives them an appreciation of doing athletic activities and gets them out from behind the television."