Get moving these holidays!

Stuck inside? That’s no way to spend your winter school holidays! “Too many of our children spend their leisure time in front of a screen, rather than moving,” says Professor Witness Mudzi, President of the South African Society of Physiotherapy.

Movement is critical for growing bodies.

Tip for parents:

• Preferably outside or in a room indoors, create an obstacle course, with the difficulty varying according to age. A small log to jump over, a low ramp to run up and down, a big cardboard box, open at both ends, to crawl through, an old tyre to jump in and out of… challenge your children to do it, and you’ll soon have them giggling and cheering, while exercising without realising it.
• Create a “super-hero” course to test which is THEIR super-power: a thick rope dangling from a tree branch to swing off, a long-jump marked out in a sand pit, hula hoops to challenge abdominal muscles, a gym ball to balance on…
• Teach your children to play rounders, the ancient game that became baseball. You can mark out a diamond anywhere, for any number of players, with a tennis ball and a nice solid chunky stick or a tennis racket (for younger children). Get friends and family to join in for an afternoon of fun and good food! (Google “how to play rounders” to get the basics.)
• Challenge your children to a ‘dance-off’ on a cold, indoorsy kind of day. Select some bouncy, infectious dance music and let ‘em rip! Have plenty of water on hand, and a selection of surprise prizes – for the silliest dance, or the funniest or the most beautiful.
• When it’s cold outside, keep the children bust by challenging them to do a race in ‘big shoes’. Give each child two empty tissue boxes, with the supplies (crayons, coloured paper, coloured string) to turn these into ‘shoes’. When all the shoes are ready, the race is on! The winner must not only reach the goal first, he or she must also stay upright (no falling) and arrive with both shoes still on.

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