A child spends a significant amount of their day at school. It should come as no surprise that the quality of those hours dramatically influences the child’s well-being. We all wish for our children to be happy, flourish, and grow into conscious and caring young adults.
Luckily, we, as parents, are in a key-position to secure the success of our children. Studies have shown that families that promote healthy food, physical activity, and regular routines, experience happier children who do better at academic tasks. By following this guide, you can help your child to stay focused, concentrate better, and achieve more success in school.
Siddebold focuses on achieving a strong and healthy body, and on obtaining a mind and body in balance, filled with energy, ready to conquer any daily situations.
Here are five ways to help your child thrive, starting from today.
Start the day with a nutritious breakfast
A nutritious breakfast will provide stable blood sugar and supply the body and brain with the necessary nutrients for a good start. Starting the day on a full stomach will provide your child with more energy and better concentration ability. For a fun and active start of the day eat breakfast while sitting on a ball.
Ideas on what to serve could be:
- Oats with milk, on top of natural yogurt, or as porridge
- Nuts, almonds, raisins, and seeds
- Fresh fruit
- Whole grain bread
- Eggs
- Smoothies made from fruits or vegetables
- Avocados, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots or other raw vegetables
If your child experiences hunger before lunchtime, let them bring a little snack to school. This could be some nuts, a piece of fruit, berries, or raw vegetables cut in finger sizes. Encourage to drink water throughout the day. Sometimes thirst can feel like hunger.
Incorporate physical activity throughout the day
Moving the body motivates the brain. Make sure your child has every possibility to be active during the day. If possible, let them walk or bike to school, do chores around the house, or let them join a sports team. Before they do homework, make sure they have had the chance to be physically active.
A simple way to implement physical activity is to use a big inflated ball. They offer a lot of flexibility and can be used both as an exercise ball and as a chair. Talk to your child’s school and suggest changes that draw to more physical activity.
- Suggest alternative seating solutions, such as a sitting ball
- Suggest using the ball during small breaks, doing jumps, stretches, and balance exercises
A couple of minutes with ball exercises will provide your child with more energy, ready for learning, and concentrating. Including a ball throughout the day will also improve the children’s motor skills and build up muscle strength.
Create regular routines on recurrent events
Predictability gives the child peace of mind and reduces recurring conflicts about daily situations. It might require a great deal of effort to organize and persist a structured lifestyle. However, both parents and children will thrive in everyday life with a certain amount of regularity and predictability. It is worth the effort.
- Create daily routines for school mornings, mealtime, bathtime, and bedtime
- Make a to-do list or a clipboard system with tasks your child need to do every day, and let them cross off each task as they finish it
- Schedule screen time
- Use a ball at home and let them sit on it whenever possible, to increase daily movement
Establish a regular sleeping pattern
An active day requires rest. Physical activity helps the mind and body and a good night’s sleep supports the effect and helps to better learning and well- being.
- Stick to the same sleep schedule every night, so the body can settle into a regular sleep-wake cycle
- Be aware of hidden caffeine in things like chocolate and soft drinks, as consumption of caffeine before bedtime may affect the ability to fall asleep
- Avoid using screens and cell phones after dinner as the light will stimulate the brain and interfere with the circadian rhythm
- Encourage book reading or listening to soft music
- A warm bath before bedtime might help your child fall asleep faster, as the body temperature will start to drop after the bath and will induce slumber
Take care of yourself
You need to be aware of yourself as a parent. Bringing up children is loving but at the same time can be a challenging task. Putting your own needs aside and trying to get all the ends meet can be exhausting. Good habits, rules, and regularities will create surplus energy and will make more room for spontaneity.
Happy and unstressed parents will positively affect the children. Therefore, remember to take care of yourself and your relationship. Get someone to look after the kids for a couple of hours. Do something YOU like to do or arrange an evening out for you and your partner.
