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Tips for Motivating Children

Choose age appropriate activities to avoid boredom or frustration
- Preschoolers need play and exercise that helps them continue to develop important motor skills — kicking or throwing a ball, playing tag or follow the leader, hopping on one foot, riding a bike, freeze dancing, or running obstacle courses
- With school-age kids spending more time on sedentary pursuits like watching TV and playing computer games, the challenge for parents is to help them find physical activities they enjoy and feel successful doing. These can range from traditional sports like baseball and basketball to Scouting, biking, camping, hiking, and other outdoor pursuits.
- Teens have many choices when it comes to being active — from school sports to after-school interests, such as yoga or skateboarding. It's important to remember that physical activity must be planned and often has to be sandwiched between various responsibilities and commitments.
Make activity easy by providing accessible equipment and taking them to accessible playgrounds or programs
Keeping the focus on fun, as kids won’t do things they don’t enjoy!
Encourage practice, which improves their abilities and helps them feel accomplished.
Give acknowledgement and praise!

Start young. Incorporate healthy foods into your children's diet early on. By getting kids used to healthy foods when they're young, they will have already developed a taste for it and motivating them to eat healthy won't be such a struggle.
Be an example. Studies have shown that kids' eating habits are largely shaped by what their parents eat. Model good eating habits to your kids to motivate them to eat healthy by eating fruits and vegetables, healthy meats.
Make it fun. Make a smiley face on their plate with fruits and vegetables. A little creativity with healthy foods will go a long way with motivating kids to eat healthy.
Introduce healthy desserts. Kids love dessert and look forward to it, so motivate them to eat healthy by serving healthy desserts.
Take kids grocery shopping with you. Allow them to pick out healthy foods that are appealing to them.
Cook together. Kids love to "help" cook and then eat their creations.