Keeping Your Children Active during the Summer COVID-19 Shutdowns

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It’s the middle of the summer and most places do not have summer camps or other activities available for children.  Many areas have closed parks, playgrounds and sports fields.  Despite all these restrictions, it is very important to keep your children active as shutdowns have already led to the exacerbation of childhood obesity rates.

Scientists were concerned from the beginning of the lockdowns that children would be negatively affected.   Their reasons included children not being able to participate in organized school activities or eat subsidized school lunches as well as being exposed to more snack food at home all day long.

Researchers recently found that compared to one year ago, “children ate an additional meal a day; slept an additional half hour per day; and spent more than 5 hours per day in front of a phone, computer or television screen” during the lockdown.  Those are shocking findings indeed!

The World Health Organization recommends that children be physically active at least 60 minutes a day.  In confined spaces, there are many activities in which children can participate.  Consider online videos with activities. So much is available on YouTube that it just takes a bit of your time to search them out and select the ones your children will enjoy.  Your children can even assist you in choosing those videos.  Also, try old tried-but-true fun such as building indoor forts, playing hide and seek, dancing to music and jumping rope. 

Experts recommend keeping a journal of activities and even rewarding children afterwards.  The key is to reinforce positive behavior and build good habits.

For more information, please visit the following:

• Coronavirus Lockdown Found to Worsen Childhood Obesity

• Coronavirus Child Obesity Exercise          

• How to Keep Your Children Active and Healthy While in Isolation

The Harmful Effects of Plastic on Our Children’s Health

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More and more studies are showing the dangers that the use of plastic is having on our health.  As parents, our concern is the effects on our children.  The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a report and policy statement in August, 2018 detailing the hazards to our children’s health posed by chemicals in plastic and making recommendations to assist persons in the health field and parents as to how to reduce exposure to these dangerous chemicals.  It found that “food insecurity remains a substantial child health concern”.

According to the report, increasing amounts of diseases and disabilities are being linked to harmful chemicals in plastic.  For example, the chemical bisphenol A or BPA has been frequently used since the 1960s in manufacturing plastic but research has shown the negative health effects it has. “BPA has recently been banned from infant bottles and plastic beverage containers are increasingly designated as BPA free. However, BPA and related compounds are still used in polymeric resin coatings to prevent metal corrosion in food and beverage containers.”  Be aware that, even though BPA may not be used in the plastic of a specific item, there are closely related chemical alternatives now being used that show similar negative health effects. 

The report lists many other chemicals and additives in food that pose harm to children.  Please read it for a good understanding of how these chemicals are shown to negatively affect our bodies.

The Academy’s policy statement is very helpful as well as it contains many practical recommendations such as:

• Avoid microwaving food or beverages (including infant formula and pumped human milk) in plastic;

• Avoid placing plastics in the dishwasher;

• Use alternatives to plastic, such as glass or stainless steel, when possible; and

• Look at the recycling code on the bottom of products to find the plastic type, and avoid plastics with recycling codes 3 (phthalates), 6 (styrene), and 7 (bisphenols) unless plastics are labeled as “biobased” or “greenware,” indicating that they are made from corn and do not contain bisphenols.

One other practical recommendation is drinking tap water rather than bottled water.   As for us parents, isn’t that so much easier, as you simply have to fill a glass or bottle from the tap?

Unfortunately, it is predicted that the use of plastics will quadruple by 2050.  That’s a sad testimony for us!

To read the full report and policy statement, please visit:

• https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/2/e20181410

• https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/2/e20181408

The Walking Classroom Successfully Promotes Exercise and Learning

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I love to write about promoting learning and exercise for children.  Have you heard about The Walking Classroom, an award-winning national program initiated by a teacher and that is now sponsored by a nonprofit organization?  If you haven’t, let me tell you about this amazing program.

It was developed by Laura Fenn, M.S. Ed, who was a 5th grade teacher.  She observed that children in her classroom who were more active performed better academically.   She put together a program called Walk, Listen and Learn, and saw her students’ academic performances improve by the end of the year.  Before long, she expanded her program to different grade levels and promoted it nationwide.   

According to its website www.thewalkingclassroom.org, the program is for students in grades 3 to 8.  They take short walks of up to 20 minutes with walk-kit devices.  On the devices are up to 167 podcasts, each beginning with a brief  message on a health conscious topic and then subjects on English language, arts, social science, and much more.  There is even a series of podcasts for STEM.  All the podcasts meet nationally-approved standards. 

Teachers are provided with lesson plans and quizzes.  For students who need special attention, The Walking Classroom provides teachers with instructions for children who have ADHD, dyslexia, and autism.

Its website is filled with information about the program as well as how to participate.Please take a few minutes and look at what it has to offer.Many students will benefit from this type of teaching tool and it would be worthwhile to investigate all that this program has to offer.

Consider Sports as Great Summer Activities for Your Children

My sons played all kinds of sports year round, especially my oldest son Zac, who is the athlete in the family.   When I was in school, I didn’t play many team sports but I did play a lot of games such as dodge ball and tetherball.  I was also a fast runner, beating my sisters and friends in running sprints.  

Playing sports is often associated with children doing well in school and actually graduating.  I had blogged previously about the NFL’s program “Play 60/Read 20” that encourages children to play and read more.  I can’t say enough about how important this is for children during the summer, in particular.  There are many sports camps available.  Or, sports activities can be planned with relatives and friends.  Again, it requires us as parents to be active in our children’s lives and make plans.

Author Soraya Diase Coffelt