The past few months have been difficult. COVID-19 has forced us to work, learn, and entertain oneself from one’s home. For parents, with smaller children it has proven to be challenging. In addition to working, they must also monitor their children. Depending on the age of the child, parents might have to ensure their children are focusing on online learning platforms as well as entering them with what they have at home. And for low income families the challenge becomes even more difficult to manage. During this time, where we are told to stay home as much as possible, parents want to ensure that their children are staying active. You want to take advantage of this unique opportunity. Now is the time to get your children involved in a new sport or activity. Here are some tips to help you out.
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Let your children choose the sport/activity. Although you might want your child to play baseball, they might be interested in something else. Give your child a range of options (2-3) and allow them to decide. When children are given choices, they feel they have more control over what they get to do. If they don’t like the choice after trying it out, then allow them to choose another thing until they figure out what they are interested in. Allowing children to make bad choices and good choices is an important skill one must learn at a young age.
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Read and watch. Allow your children to read books, watch movies or YouTube videos on a particular activity or sport. Children become familiar with the things they watch and read. For example, if you let your child read the famous Who was? Book series, it might pique their interest in the activity/sport that person performed and thus motivate them to try it out.
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Play with your child. Introducing a child to a new sport is the first step but getting them to play requires some effort from the parent. A study showed that parents who are involved in their children’s sport have a positive impact. A correlation between parent’s involvement and the possibility that child will participate within that sport was observed. If you schedule time away to play a sport with your child you may get them to like it and hopefully when they return to school they are able to join a sport team and continue.
So as summer peaks around the corner and society starts to open back up slowly, you might want to give these tips a try and get your kids involved in a new activity or sport that they can continue with in the future.
References
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https://extension.psu.edu/programs/betterkidcare/early-care/tip-pages/all/giving-children-choices
