Even during a pandemic children need to take part in physical activity, eat healthily to maintain a strong healthy body to help them grow, have positive mental health and fight off infections.
Tips to encourage just 60 Minutes of physical activity a day…
Did you know that it is recommended that children take part in 60 minutes of physical activity a day? This is the guidance from the Chief Medical Officer. Physical activity also supports children to manage their feelings and behaviour.
These 60 minutes can be broken down into different times throughout the day:
- 5 blocks of 10 minutes,
- 4 blocks of 15 minutes or
- 1 block of 30 minutes then 2 blocks of 10 minutes
These activity breaks are great for burning excess energy, which helps to reduce challenging behaviour and refocuses the mind when learning.
With children spending most of their time at home we have some helpful links with advice that can help break up the day, get them moving and will get the most out of their home learning.
- The Daily Mile at home setting out weekly challenges to keep children active throughout the week.
- Change4life have lots of activities and are linked to children’s loved Disney characters.
- Youth Sports Trust have some great 60 second activities for behaviour distractions and reengaging the mind.
- Or how about starting the day with PE with The Body Coach and get about 30 minutes done first thing in the morning.
Tips to encourage Healthy Eating…
Having a good routine around meal time will support children’s health and wellbeing.
A way to ensure your child is maintaining a healthy balanced diet is to have a routine around meals and snack time just like they would in school, for example:
- Breakfast between: 7:30 & 8:30am
- Mid-morning snack 10:30am
- Lunch between: 12pm & 1pm
- Afternoon snack: 3pm
- Tea between: 5pm & 6pm
Also, cooking is a great life skill that children at school do not get much chance to learn. Now is a great chance to let them help you with their meals and this could form part of your home learning. We have some great cook-a-long videos from your school catering team Let’s Dine.
Here are some tips to eating well:
- Make sure you are eating five portions of 2 fruit and 3 vegetable a day, eating food with lots of colours ensures you get a variety of vitamins and minerals.
- Limit the amount of sugary snacks and drinks, this includes fruit which contains natural sugars. It’s recommended children should have no more than 30 grams of sugar per day at the age of 11 years and upwards, check out the Change4life’s Sugar Calculator to see how much sugar your child might be having.
Struggling for meal ideas? Check out this resource list that have tons of recipes that are healthy and fun: