Community Corner

Our Kids Need to Move it, Move It

But how can we fit that extra exercise into their jam-packed schedules?

Americans are fat. We eat too much. We don’t exercise enough. And, sadly, we’ve passed our food issues down to our kids.

Current estimates put the number of youngsters that are considered to be overweight or obese at 30 percent. Everyone from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are recommending that our kids get out and move more.

East Penn School District is taking strides to improve the health and fitness of the little people in our lives. . 

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The “experts” recommend that school-age kids engage in a minimum of 60 minutes of moderate physical activity a day. A recommendation that, in theory, makes sense. 

Practical application of that recommendation may be another thing entirely. My first-grader gets on the bus at 8:28 a.m. and, if we’re lucky, reaches our doorstep at 4:10 p.m. Factor in Greek school, Cub Scouts, after-school science enrichment programs, story time at the library and the fact that a “good” mother is obligated to feed her child dinner, and I am left wondering where that 60 minutes a day of additional activity is going to fit in. Keeping our kids up past bedtime to run laps seems counterintuitive…

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What tips do you have for sneaking more exercise into your kids’ lives? And, yours for that matter. If you’re a runner, do you take the kids with you? If you’re a couch potato, is it “Do as I say, not as I do?” If you don’t have kids, but have found a way to incorporate regular exercise into your life and have some tips to share, we'd love to hear from you.

Share your thoughts and stories with us in the comments.


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