Back to School

Back to School

It is Back to School time already! The school supplies, the new shoes, and the clothes to wear—these are our main areas of focus when we think of back to school. But maybe this year can be different. Eating right and exercising daily is not only good for our children’s health and well-being it also affects their ability to learn.

Daily Exercise

Learning requires good nutrition and exercise

It is a known fact that daily exercise helps us with so much more than our physical body. Daily exercise helps with our stress levels, feelings of well-being, and clearing our minds of the day’s events. Our children need to have daily exercise. 

During the summer this is usually an easy thing to have happen. However, as soon as the school books open and the snow begins to fall, it can be all too easy to forget about how much exercise children need. Consider getting them involved in local children activity groups, school sports, off school sports, whatever your family can think of—the sky is the limit.

Some people think it is expensive to be involved in all of the activities and some are expensive, but you can also make money and get exercise. My two oldest grandsons work mowing lawns and herding chickens. They get an amazing amount of exercise and paid! Gardening can also bring financial results while teaching science and providing daily exercise. On top of all this they are involved with their church sports teams and more.  

Daily Nutrition

Be sure when you are sending your kids off to school this year that you truly understand nutrition and make choices that will help your children stay focused throughout the day. A lot of people have what I call a carbohydrate rich breakfast—cereal. More than likely you are not getting enough protein and dietary fat in the morning when they start the day. Consider getting up 5 minutes early and make eggs for breakfast! That’s all it takes to make an egg based breakfast—five minutes!

Lunch time has its challenges as well. Some kids have school lunches and others have school cafeterias or restaurant. There are so many choices and no supervision. Teaching kids why and how to choose wisely is important! Learn what you can about nutrients like dietary fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Each of them have their place in your child’s daily diet. I use the word diet as it is defined in Merriam Webster, “habitual nourishment.” Our kids need habitual nourishment in order to grow and learn.

Snacks are another area that we need to think about what is best for our kids. A well-balanced snack is a great segue to a good dinner. Try something like apples and peanut butter or mini tunafish salad sandwiches or fruit and cheese cubes.   

This School Year

So this year when we are all concerned about our back to school plans make sure that nutrition and exercise is a major part of back to school planning.

The US Government and the NFL have websites to help with ideas on nutrition and how to get 60 minutes of daily exercise for children into each day.  www.fueluptoplay60.com and www.letsmove.gov

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet and TimerOrganizer

Check blog.TimerOrganizer.com next week for Back to School ideas for organization

Let's Move

My main focus of today’s blog was going to be about the www.facebook.com/letsmove which I LOVE!! We must be vigilant in getting our children out there and moving and we as adults need to as well.

Food Labels Not Really the Problem

 

However, last night the whole food label revamping reared its ugly head again. I must say again how I feel about this. Last month, January 31^st I wrote a blog about the Food Labels change that was being proposed www.timerdiet.com/blog/food-labels-needing-update-really/  

I am going to have to disagree with Mrs. Obama on this one. I see no reason whatsoever to change the food labels that we have. Ok so read the previous blog and make your own conclusion. Let’s Move on to Let’s Move!!

Daily Activity Is Important

Children must have daily activity built into their schedule as young as possible. When my kids were young (around 6 months old) we did “mommy and me” swim sessions at the YMCA. So obviously this was probably more about me at this age, but it carried on as they got a little older. When my girls were around 3 and 4 years old I got them involved in gymnastics at the YMCA and roller skating at the local skating rink. When they were 5 and 6 years old we were skiing. I didn’t go skiing for the first time until I was 20 years old. I honestly hated my first time but, I persevered and now I love it! At 6 and 7 they were in PeeWee cheerleading and from there cheerleading was their love. I guarantee that those girls worked out almost every day as cheerleaders. Those girls never got enough credit for all that they did!! (Ok soap box moment)

So why was this so important to me? Many of you don’t know but I was a teenage mother, and I was always worried that I wouldn’t be good enough. This internal fear propelled me to do whatever I could to give my daughters a “normal” childhood. I was divorced shortly after my youngest was born and child support was minimal and usually non-existent. So everything I did I did so with very modest means. I have to admit my thought process was not so much about physical fitness as it was about my kids having fun and doing things that I thought they would enjoy. Which brings me to my next observation…

 

We Want Our Kids to Have Fun

 

But, our kid’s definition of fun has changed, and not for the good as it pertains to the physical activity of our children. Kids these days define fun as computers, tablets, phones, gaming systems, and other new technology that wasn’t even around when my kids were young. So I can understand how parents are wanting to let their kids do things that are “fun” but, we as parents need to balance technological fun with physical fun. We must include psychical fun in our children’s lives. The easiest way to do this is organized activities. There may be a some fees involved, but I urge you to search out various ways to cover the costs or find locations that are not charging high fees. Here are some ideas to get the costs covered, and not just for your child but for others, too:

 

·         Car Washes

·         Selling of goods promoting the cause

·         Finding a sponsor—Many businesses would be very willing to do this

·         Find church groups that have athletic programs

·         Local YMCA

·         Local public and/or after school program

·         Have your child start a business

o   Growing and selling garden foods

o   Babysitting

o   Mowing Lawns

 

Let’s Not Forget the Obvious

 

Our children look to us as parents when deciding how to live their lives. The alternative is that they look to us as to how not to live their lives. Decide which way you want your children to look at you and their childhood. Do they see parents who care about their physical activity? What they eat, by minimizing junk foods? Get out and walk as a family, go for a hike, maybe get even more adventurous and go skiing, water skiing, gardening, picking up leaves, shoveling snow!! Do it all as a family, and your children will take notice.

Sherri Sue Fisher, author of TimerDiet

www.timerdiet.com