Starting from the childhood stage, parents should teach their children to be diligent in exercising. Not only good for physical health, some types of sports also train children to be able to make strategies on how to beat their opponents. Not to mention that sports can increase the ability to socialize, teamwork, and so on. However, inviting children to be active in moving or exercising is not an easy thing. So, here are 10 ways to motivate your child to practice sports!
1. Make a Plan
Doing sports also requires a plan. What sports do you want, when, where, with whom, how long the duration of the exercise, everything is arranged in the plan. It’s not just adults who need an exercise plan, kids need it too. And making this plan is of course the duty of the parents.
As parents, before you can motivate your child to practice sports, they must first determine the things that have been mentioned above. Not only so that it is well organized, but also so that the child can prepare himself to do sports. Slowly but surely, children also need to be taught to make plans and exercise menus so that later they don’t have to depend on other people.
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2. Encourage Children to Do Sports They Like
When parents get children who are already into sports, sometimes they even limit or even prohibit their children from exercising. The reasons can vary, usually the most commonly used is what exercise is for, it’s better to just study in the room. This is sometimes what makes children lazy to move and eventually their health becomes problematic.
When you have children who do have sports hobbies, it’s better to just let them do this hobby. Encourage children to do this hobby. Who knows, from sports they can be successful. Especially now that there are many ways to be successful. As long as it’s positive, just support it. If it is too excessive in exercising that it affects academic grades, it is necessary to place restrictions on children.
3. Limit Their Usage on Gadgets
The development of advanced technology nowadays affects children more or less. Many children prefer to spend their free time playing on cellphones, consoles, or computers. It does not cross their minds to do activities outside the home because playing gadgets is more exciting.
If you parents have children who are lazy to go out and prefer to play with gadgets, it will certainly be difficult to get children to exercise. One way to be able to encourage children to do sports is to make rules where there are days they can play gadgets, but there are days when they have to stay away from gadgets and invite them to exercise.
4. Don’t Overdo it
Anything that is done excessively is definitely not going to be good, including sports. Adults only when doing sports but forget the name of rest can get tired and fall ill. Children also can experience this. Want to be as active and as energetic as any children will be tired too.
If the child sees that the child has passed the time limit and looks tired, the parent must be able to stop the child from exercising and invite him to rest. Give direction that in addition to exercise, rest is also important to do. If you are too forced to exercise and fall ill, it will add to new problems. It could be that children will refuse to exercise because they feel they have fallen ill due to exercising too hard.
5. Join Social Activities
Educating and raising children is not easy considering that their characteristics and preferences are not always the same as their parents. Even if the parents like sports, the child doesn’t necessarily like sports. If a child doesn’t like to exercise, of course, they need to find a number of ways to seduce their child to do sports.
One way is to invite him to participate in social activities. Social activity will certainly involve physical. Maybe not getting to the point, which is sport. But it can be started with a simple one. For instance, camping in a park or forest. Not only can it make children more active, but can also teach children to socialize with other children.
6. Invite Outdoor Vacations
Having a child who is lazy to exercise is difficult. Even though exercise can nourish the body. To outsmart this, parents need to turn their brains in such a way that their children want to move. One of them is by taking the children on vacation. It seems that no child does not like vacations, right?
Make plans to take time off from school and take the kids off. Not only on vacation and staying at home but outside the house. Take him to a place that is interesting and has outbound facilities.
7. Do Sports With Fun
There’s nothing good about being pushy. Forcing children to do something they don’t like will backfire. It’s not that he even likes it, the one who hates him. Especially when they reach adulthood where they can make their own choices in life. Parents can do nothing more.
Doing sports should be done with pleasure, not force. Forcing children to do sports can make them hate sports as adults. It is precisely the job of parents to find sports activities that can make a happy atmosphere. Having a competition where the winner will get a prize can be a trick to motivate child to practice sports.
8. Give Reasons Why They Should Exercise
Sometimes there are also children who are given enough explanation to understand what to do. It only remains how the parents provide accurate and easy-to-understand explanations so that children understand. To make children want to exercise can be done by providing an explanation of sports and its benefits.
With a clear and easy to understand explanation, it is likely that children will understand how important exercise is for body health. No need for confused sports, just try to get your children to play football, basketball or badminton. There are many types of sports, at least one or two that interest children.
9. Involve All Family Members
When I was a child, if there were activities that required the involvement of family members, usually the children would like it or not. Well, sports can also be tricked in that way. Don’t just encourage the child to exercise but also encourage other family members to participate with the child.
Exercise is most fun when done together. Especially when done with family, not only physical health is obtained, exercise with family members can also improve relations between family members. You can also take cousins if you lack family members.
10. Be a Role Model
The child usually likes to imitate the things that are done by older people. Especially if it is the parents themselves, the child will quickly follow suit. Instead of pushing children to do things they don’t necessarily like, why not start with yourself? It is possible that the child will follow his parents.
Parents are the very first role models owned by children. Good or bad children, depending on the parents. If parents provide good direction and example, then children will also follow it. Therefore, you parents give an example first by doing sports in children. So, one of the best way to motivate your child to practice sports is by doing sports yourself!
