Nanny to Mommy

Nowadays, health issues such as obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure are becoming increasingly prevalent among children. This is due to an increase in the amount of time that kids spend indoors and using screens for education and entertainment. Although technology has improved our lives in many ways, it isn’t always doing our health or the health of our children any favors. If you’d like some advice on how to make your children more active and therefore healthier, keep on reading to discover the five best sports for children.

Volleyball involves a lot of high-intensity aerobic exercise, which makes it great for burning extra calories and improving cardiovascular health. Additionally, since indoor volleyball and beach volleyball are team sports (with indoor volleyball including six players on each team and beach volleyball including two on each team), this activity can teach your child how to handle competition and help them build social and teamwork skills.

Of course, since volleyball is fast paced, you’ll want to make sure your child is protected if they fall over on the court. Luckily, there are plenty of protective clothing options available, such as cheap volleyball knee pads and elbow pads that are still highly effective.

Football is one of the most popular sports for kids and adults alike, so if you want your child to become interested in exercise, football could be something they’d like. Like volleyball, football can promote the values of teamwork and good sportsmanship, which are very important to learn. Football is also fantastic for improving your child’s dexterity and coordination and starting football young can help your child to hone these skills early.

For a great all-around sport that develops strength throughout the body, swimming is the best option. Swimming can help your child strengthen their core muscles, but it can also improve their breathing control and make them less nervous about being submerged. These are vital life skills that will help them if they ever find themselves stuck in a large body of water.

If you’re looking for a simple sport that requires no fancy equipment, running is the choice for you and your child. Kids often practice running and compete in races in school, which means that they’ll have a head start when it comes to trying out this sport in their free time. There’s also a lot of choice regarding how your child competes - if they prefer sprinting, they can try 100m races, but if they like long-distance running, they can train for marathons when they’re older.

In addition to burning extra calories, gymnastics improves strength and flexibility. Although the tricks and techniques used in gymnastics can look daunting, this is a great sport for kids as developing flexibility in youth is very important and can help your child avoid injuries as they age.

Exercise can reduce the risk of serious illnesses and maintain your child’s health as they grow older. If you want to get them away from their computer screens, then try out these sports and see how their health, happiness and social skills all improve.