This school year may look a little different for some families, but promoting healthy habits is just as important. Encouraging healthy habits is about promoting well-being physically, mentally and socially.
Parents and caregivers play a crucial part in creating healthy habits that last a lifetime. Healthy habits for the school year go beyond just eating your vegetables and washing your hands. From developing a positive attitude to keeping a daily routine, here are 10 ways to encourage healthy habits in your kids this school year.
1. Support Mindful Thinking
Parents and caregivers play a central role in teaching children how to be self-aware. Gaining insight from a young age in how emotions work is vital to emotional health as an adult. Encouraging kids to be mindful means that they are aware of what they are doing and paying attention to the situation at hand. This is extremely helpful when navigating difficult or stressful situations, and teaching kids how to handle complex emotions.
2. Promote Oral Hygiene
Promoting healthy hygiene habits isn’t just about reminding your kids to brush their kids before bedtime. Oral hygiene is an essential piece of overall well-being. Using age-appropriate strategies to help your kids understand how teeth brushing and flossing helps prevent cavities and other tooth problems. Teaching cause and effect when it comes to preventative health measures will pay off in the long-term.
3. Develop a Positive Attitude
Children are a bit like sponges, especially when it comes to emotional learning. Be aware of how your attitude frames your child’s understanding of the world. If you tend to look on the negative side, your child will undoubtedly pick up on your feelings and may start to copy your behaviors. Helping your child develop a positive attitude helps them feel more relaxed in the face of adversity, and teaches them how to handle difficult circumstances without being overwhelmed.
4. Enjoy Physical Activities
Kids love to move, and need an environment that promotes safe and age-appropriate movement. Teach your kids that physical activity is fun, as well as healthy. Instead of requiring them to be outside for a certain amount of time before watching TV, teach them that being outside is one of the greatest adventures they can find. Enjoying physical activities as a family, such as hiking or going for a swim, is another great way to promote healthy living.
5. Turn off the TV
The average time a child spends in front of a screen has skyrocketed in the last few years. From watching television to using smartphones, technology is playing a detrimental role in child development. While it may be tempting to turn on the TV just to keep them occupied, avoid using screentime as a regular event or the most common activity in your house. Screen time is not only sedentary, but it also discourages creative play, gross motor skills and other important activities for cognitive and physical development.
6. Support Imaginative Play
Most kids naturally want to engage in imaginative, open-ended play. If given a safe space to explore, children can spend long periods of time using only their imagination to entertain them. This type of play encourages creativity, focus, visual analysis and leadership. Supporting imaginative play allows your child to build self-confidence and other healthy habits.
7. Create a Reading Nook
If you find that your kid has trouble focusing on a book while sitting at the kitchen table or surrounded by distractions, consider creating a reading nook. The nook doesn’t need to be a room, but simply a small space that is cozy and inviting. It may be in your child’s bedroom or the playroom. This space encourages quiet time and can be utilized as a safe space for children to read before naptime, or before going to bed.
8. Prioritize Rest
For many parents, sleep is something you give up when you decide to have kids. However, promoting an unsustainable lifestyle with insufficient rest is not the way to raise healthy kids. If parents and caregivers are constantly running on empty while telling kids to take a nap, children will be quick to pick up on the fact that the rest is not really prioritized. This may create negative associations with naptime, or an unwillingness to go to sleep at night. Supporting healthy sleep schedules are paramount to children’s health and development, as well as the health of parents! Teach your kids the importance of rest, both in the form of sleep and just taking a moment to be silent.
9. Keep a Routine
Routine can help your family feel more connected and may helpyou feel less overwhelmed. Keeping a schedule helps children to know what the day holds so that they are not caught off guard or surprised by any plans that may affect them. Additionally, building time into your daily routine to eat together as a familypromotes life-long healthy eating habits, and gives children an opportunity to work on their social skills.
10. Practice Safety
Children will undoubtedly get into things they shouldn’t, or try to push the limitations you set for them. When promoting safety, explain to your children the consequences of not being safe. Practicing safety both at home and elsewhere requires teaching kids the responsibility that safety demands. If kids associate safe playing with personal responsibility, they may be more inclined to play it safe, rather than seeing if they can really jump off the swing set or climb the tallest tree. This is useful not just for the present but also the future, as it can help to teach them lessons and ingrain behaviours that will come in useful when they are older. Driving in particular can be of worry to parents, but teaching your kids to be responsible for themselves and others can help a great deal for when they eventually find themselves behind the wheel, as it may assist with reducing the number of collisions or accidents they’re involved in. After all, nobody wants to receive a call from a highly experienced lawyer near you because your child has been in an accident, so start trying to prevent such scenarios now while you can!
Habits for a Lifetime
Each school year brings new challenges, and parents are often left responding to new stresses in their child’s life, rather than taking control of the situation. Supporting healthy habits is a great way to encourage your child to face adversity, both at school and at home. Encouraging mindful thinking, routines and rest are just a few ways you can promote balanced living for your children. These life tools are not only vital to a successful school year, but will also help your child form life-long healthy habits.
