Active kids are healthy kids. But thanks to the technology today that the kids are pretty much missing the childhood activities and rather spending more time on the screens. Teaching kids Sports has many benefits. Kids learn a lot from sports like teamwork, developing a commitment to something which helps them, in the long run, to achieve big.
Although you would want to ensure that your kid is playing the right way so as to get the maximum healthy experience and advantage from it. This way you can make sure that sporting event is pleasurable and a pleasant experience for the kids, as well as others, playing. Many children are exposed to a variety of sports even before they learn to read and write. Be it soccer, baseball, swimming, tennis, etc., kids develop a passion for such sports.
Sometimes the kids just get tired and say that they do not want to continue further. The basic problem is that kids lose interest very easily and want to move on to something new. As a parent, you might want to take in charge of influencing your younger one the right way. You have the power to make them enjoy and love a sport. Here’s how to spread the love for acquiring a skill to stay alive within for a lifetime.
How do you Motivate your Child in Sports and Teaching your kids to love sports?
Both of the above-mentioned points about motivation and loving sports is very important for an individual to continue to be inspired throughout life. Sports for kids help them to develop Motor skills. But if your kid is batting and kicking even before they could learn to skip and jump, they might be misbalanced and would not be able to run properly. And this could lead to injuries making it tough for them to advance in sports. So how to get your kids to play sports?
1. Teach the Kids from the Basics:
This is the most important point of all, where, getting your child outside for a fixed duration every day and encouraging them to indulge in physical activity will give them time to master the basics. These activities surely have to be supervised by an adult and also do not need to be a very structured play. Let the child have a good workout by running around a playground and climbing or sliding through equipment. Keep your little one excited about outdoor activities and help them to think outside the ball. Tumbling, swimming, etc. activities are good. You must indulge your kid in age-appropriate options which could include riding bike, dance lessons, hiking and camping as a family. Warming up before any sport is also something that you would want to include as teaching in the basics.
2. Break it Down into Smaller Portions:
Whether you want to teach your child to ride a bike, ski, pitch, climb or surf, whatever be the sport, break it down into smaller skills and objectives for the kid to learn. For example, If you want to teach them to climb, You might have to begin with the basics which are walking and then moving a few feet Uphill every time. This gives smaller and achievable objective to the kids and bills their confidence gradually helping them to achieve the final target. And also you keep them away from any unwanted accidents.
3. Never Overdo It:
parents nowadays want the kids to be perfect in everything and also rush them into things pretty often. Sports indeed are such a big deal that parents can get too far and overdo it. There are few parents who encourage and extreme focus on only one single sport every day since a very early age. While there are other parents who enrolled the kids in various different activities once at the time. Although both approaches can end up with a backfire as one sport every single day could make them feel as if it’s more of a job than a fun activity and to get into many things at one time could make them feel that they are too busy to love anyone of it. The best way to deal with this could be to indulge kids in playing 2-3 sports a year, such that even if they get bored of one, they have another one to look forward to. And, as they get older and developed the interest, they can cut down into one sport of the choice.
4. Keep It a Low Key at Home:
let’s not turn their fun time into heavy sessions. Support that interest by using the time to play at home and make it as fun as possible for them. Do not worry too much about skipping Sports at an early age. Do you know that starting indulge in sports in elementary school or later curd brings in the top athlete in your head especially if they have been active during their early childhood days?
5. Always Get the Right Gear:
We understand that you do not want to spend a lot on buying separate accessories and outfit for a sport for them to play unless you are sure this is the sport they will enjoy forever. But, how do you think you want to set them up for success? Climbing shoes can be expensive for the kids especially when they are growing every single day and would not be able to reuse them soon, but, there are ways in which you could rent the shoes for the kid until they are sure that they would stick to the sport. But the important point is here to ensure that they have the basic equipment that is needed to participate in any sport so that they do not injure themselves and have the best experience of it.
6. Safety First:
Be it any sport, the first lesson to be taught to our kids must always be about safety. You must explain to them the basic rules of the game, however, more importantly, the fundamentals of safety when playing a sport. Make sure that they adhere to it and explain the safety equipment like pads or helmet to them. Very important he invented they need to keep themselves warm as well. Let them know that in case of any injury they must immediately come back and report to you or any elder.
7. Make it Enjoyable:
The kids might love to go for a bike ride since its summer vacation at night hours after dinner. Although the City Streets are quiet and the light is golden, let them enjoy it the way they like – ride wearing their pajamas, or inventing a secret passage in a street. Let them indulge in what they like to do keeping in mind safety and security.
8. Give them a Break:
kids often get tired and complain about it. But, we choose to ignore sometimes and keep going in order to achieve the maximum possible. If you use the strategy of “five more minutes’ hon and then will be done”, thinking they would miraculously forget that they were tired and continue but, honestly it might backfire most of the times. Question them exactly when they are tired makes them want to whine and fuss about everything and end up costing more time and tears at the end of the day. Remember that kids cannot match up the stamina as compared to the adults, and as a matter of fact, they even have little lungs and legs. Keep taking shorter breaks to keep them happy, and anticipate the hunger and thirst break they might need before it reaches a crisis mode.
9. Don’t be Extremely Demanding:
It is good to invite them to run, ride, and other activities with you but don’t force it. A good way to go about it would be to come back after the activity and let them know that it was great and fun. You would see them asking to join you the next time you go whenever they are ready for it. You must focus on the sport and the sensation towards it rather than the end result and expectations to win or excel.
10. Sportsmanship:
The most important bit of the article would be this where you might want to teach your kids to focus on being a good dinner and a good loser. Help the children to learn from their failures and accept it with open arms. Let them know that they cannot win every game, and it is important for them to be gracious when they play good or bad on that particular day. Tell them it is important to put in the heart and the soul into the game when they play and concentrate! Teach the kids that negative games are not good to play.
Remember that others might be trying to win, and be competitive in their play. But, kids are playing more for fun. As a parent, teaching kids sport should be to help them to participate at a young age, stay fit, learn valuable lessons and new skills as a good sportsman and establish a healthy competitive nature.
