Mothers of School-Age Children
Active Living
How can I help my school-aged child build a healthy body?
As teachers and parents, our roles are to offer the child many opportunities to try different sports, and to help the child choose the ones that will best help them to grow and develop.
Body-mind coordination and skill are important. From a health point of view, we also want school-age children to build strong bones and muscles. Eating a variety of nutritious foods, rich in calcium, vitamin D, and protein will help build a strong body. As well, the food your child consumes needs to supply enough energy to support a physically active lifestyle. Both of these are key parts of the same equation.
At this age, resist the urge to have your child specialize in one sport. Although a child with a talent for a certain sport may focus on that sport, her daily physical activities should include other activities. For instance, the child athlete in an individual sport such as gymnastics, swimming, archery, or cycling may choose to play a team sport at school in the off season. All the research on this subject says that those who keep up a variety of sports into the teen years are generally stronger and less fragile than those who choose to specialize in one sport early on in childhood.