Children need to be active all the time. Physical activities stimulate the growth hormones and improve the emotional health of the children. Sports, exercises and physical activities build healthy bones and muscles, keep the children fit, boosts the immune system; thus helping them fight against diseases. Medical researchers have observed that highly active children are less likely to suffer from illnesses like cold and cough, fever, allergies, blood pressure, diabetes and other health related issues. Physical activities relieve stress, improve mind power and keep you more happier and energetic. Sports improve the overall physical and mental development of the children and thus helping them become more sharp and active.
Even moderate physical activity improves the child’s arithmetic, observation, visualization and memory skills. Outdoor games and sports help the kids to understand the concept of teamwork, cooperation and teach them to how to manage themselves in challenging situations. With the change in time and technology, kids are more comfortable and happy staying indoors as they like to play more of games on the computer, mobiles or gaming stations. This brings in laziness, tiredness, underdeveloped bones and muscles and reduces mental sharpness and pro-activeness.
To help children lead fuller and happier lives and overcome all the above-said problems and issues, it becomes necessary to involve a child in physical and sports activities that add value to the physical and psychological health of children in today’s environment.
Here are some reasons why you should encourage your child to play sports:
Health & Fitness
Sports help your child to stay healthy and fit, as it helps in strengthening the immune system, enhancing body strength and maintaining physical coordination with improved concentration. Participating in sports also helps the children burn those extra calories that they often consume junk food that is high in calories and low on nutrition. These kinds of ready made/ready-to- eat foods are also a big factor behind obesity and other physical disorders among the kids, which can be easily spotted nowadays.
Self-Confidence & Time Management
Sports help an individual to learn a lot of things in a number of ways. It enhances our confidence, instills time management skills and equips us with self- belief, team-work, spontaneous decision making, strategy & planning, emotion balancing, etc. All the factors mentioned above, somewhere or the other also helps in boosting up the self-esteem of a child. An individual learns to handle pressure and victory as well as defeat while involved in sports activities.
Sportsmanship, Self-Exploration & Value Addition
Playing sports helps in fostering team spirit, sportsmanship and leadership qualities. Children learn to coordinate with their team-mates and perform under situations of pressure. Children learn to handle defeat early on in life, lose graciously and bounce back more effectively & confidently. A child is able to assess his/her mistakes and become a better player. This is a perfect example of self-exploration and value addition in the personality of an individual.
Academic Performance
With the advancement in technology and the advent of smart devices in the life of people, many students feel happy to stay indoors and spend more time on smart gadgets, tablets, smartphones, play stations, etc rather than take part in outdoor sport activities. Exercising one’s body, muscles & bones is very important as it improves the academic performance of the children. It relieves stress, rejuvenates the mind, improves the cognitive and memory functions of the brain.
Nature’s Bliss
Nature offers us a lot to play with and build a healthy body. Sunlight (source of Vitamin D) and clean air are two major natural resources which are required to build a strong body. Playing outdoors helps children to connect with nature and make use of its abundant resources.
The children who play outdoor sports and do various types of physical activities grow up to become extroverts as they can easily connect themselves socially with their peers instead of connecting in a virtual space. We should remember the well said statement – “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”.