Encouraging active children: part two

You might have read our recent article on encouraging active children. If not you can read it here.

We focused on all the low cost ways that you can encourage your children to be active and also be active with them. One of the activities we discussed was swimming.

Swimming is popular in our family and our big girl is definitely a mermaid in disguise.

She is very sporty and takes part in a number of different out of school activities, as well as frequently representing school in a number of sports.

She gives everything 100% and has a healthy competitive side to her which makes her try her best every time.

Having kit that helps her achieve her best is crucial. A snug fitting swimming costume and a decent pair of goggles that don’t leak and stay on when she dives in, can make quite a difference. We like using Swimshop as they have a junior range that looks appealing but remains practical. SPEEDO is normally her brand of choice and seems to wear and wash well.

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Competitive swimming has a number of benefits including:

  • Overall fitness
  • Learning the benefits of a healthy lifestyle
  • Making friends
  • Self discipline
  • Improving Concentration
  • Learning sportsmanship
  • Learning a skill you can develop throughout life and even into older age
  • Improved sleep
  • Developing a long, lean body

Do your children compete in their chosen activities? Do you think some healthy competition is good, is it the taking part that counts or perhaps somewhere in between?

Brilliant blog posts on HonestMum.com

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8 comments

  1. A lovely positive post! I think competition is very important. At primary school they used to not allow any competition – sports day was dull as ditch! But now that’s changed. It’s always inclusive and fun but yes, there are winners (no real losers as such!). My DD goes riding every day and is very fit (and she can swim but isn’t a fan). #brilliantblogposts

    1. Yes – sports day here is still more about taking part but when they compete for school at different events it is all about doing the best they can and being there best and that includes trying to win.

  2. My two are a bit little for competition yet, although I definetaly agree with the benefits of encouraging them to be active… Of course with my 11 month old wannabe toddler, encouraging him to sit still is proving more tricky!

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