Help your children stay active and healthy during lockdown with Everybody Leisure’s weekly sporting games
We all know how important it is to keep children active and healthy, but with the added pressures of home schooling and a national lockdown, children have once again been forced to spend more time than ever indoor at home. As parents, we are very likely to be juggling working from home and multi-tasking with home schooling and with only being able to exercise outdoors in our local areas once a day, it is very likely that our children are being less active than ever before.
UKactive recently posted a blog titled ‘Our children’s health is in crisis and we need a proper plan to get them moving again’ (read the full article)
Within the article it refers to research from Sport England which states:
“Before the pandemic, children’s activity levels across the country were ashamedly low, with Sport England highlighting, in December 2019, that just 47% of children in England were achieving an average of 60 minutes of physical activity each day. While headway has been made, stubborn inequalities have blighted progress – children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, children with disabilities, children from ethnic minority groups and girls, all consistently less likely to be active.
Coronavirus has exacerbated the situation, further exposing inequalities, with the new lockdown and further school closures deepening the crisis. The number of children and young people achieving an average of 60 minutes of physical activity each day plummeted to less than 20% during the first lockdown, when schools closed in Spring 2020.”
They are pretty alarming statistics and with schools closed and it up to parents to now be taking on the role of a P.E. teacher, along with wearing numerous other hats day to day, more support than ever is needed from local organisations and professionals to share resources.
There has been some great initiatives launched this past year with online health and fitness classes for both parents and children to take part in. Everybody has innovated too with the launch of Everybody@Home which has over 30 live classes a week and on-demand workouts, including the new Family Dance Fit!
As well as these great online fitness classes, we also wanted to share some of our easy, quick and fun games for children to play at home which will support them getting active and healthy but also give them those all important vital skills that would be learning at school in a traditional P.E. lesson such as throwing, catching, team work and more! With spending more and more time in front of computer screens (both adults and children) it’s great to take a break and try something fun. The best bit is…there’s no need to go and buy lots of sporting equipment as we will be using all household items to make it even easier to set up and so you can save those pennies.
Our first video is just a few minutes long and is an introduction to indoor bowls for children of all ages and abilities! You can adapt this activity to make it harder or easier, for example creating a ramp to roll the items to knock over the ‘bowling pins’ or space the pins out to really test that hand-eye coordination!
All you need is:
- a little bit of space
- books or toys that stand up (e.g. action figures)
- rolled up socks
- teddies
- rolled up gloves
We will be sharing a new sporting activity every week – up next week is ‘Shooting Hoops’ using just a washing basket and some more household items.
Got any videos or tips to share with other parents and Everybody members? We would love to see how you are keeping your children active and having fun during lockdown – send your stories to [email protected]