Which will help mitigate difficulties and keep the desire to move forward
There is a big difference in the approaches to motivating adults and children to do sports. It is much easier to motivate children. A young body, enthusiasm inherent in children, and the absence of negative experience in the sports field play a role here. This wonderful state that “everything is still ahead” provides a good ground for future victories. But there are also nuances – children also face difficulties in mastering sports disciplines, lose and get upset, lose interest, gain weight, and so on.
How to get around these points, soften them and help the child maintain the desire to move forward in sports. Let’s also discuss how beginners can take their first steps.
OLGA BURTOVAYA
Mother, Ph.D. Founder of the Children’s Textile School, organizer of children’s events
Games
With preschoolers, as in any other education, the game form works well. It is necessary to involve the child’s imaginative thinking, to use comparisons. For example, “you swim as fast as a motor boat”, “you jump further than a grasshopper”, “you dance like a queen”. For home physical education, you can use exercise games, including musical ones, in which each exercise is pronounced in words. For the youngest, finger games are suitable, a kind of gymnastics, where movements (plot) are performed by gestures.
Games always attract children much more than other forms of activities. Any outdoor games will be a good stepping stone for serious sports.
If there is a goal to perform specific exercises, and the child is difficult and reluctant, the game will come to the rescue again. But this method works until the age of eight.
From home soft toys, you need to choose someone of the largest height and preferably comical appearance. The ideal option is with arms and legs (paws/hooves), and the height is close to the height of the child. As a last resort, buy someone new.
This toy will become a child’s companion for home workouts. The child rocked the abs, now the friend should work out. While the second “athlete” performs the movements, the child rests. Next is the second approach to the exercise, etc. Children quickly get used to such joint work and do not perceive the training as something boring and difficult. It’s fun to teach the monkey Chicha to do the splits! “And the cat Fedya is so fat that he can’t raise his paws with me! I overtook him!”
And the process is ongoing. This is what we, parents, need.
Games
With preschoolers, as in any other education, the game form works well. It is necessary to involve the child’s imaginative thinking, to use comparisons. For example, “you swim as fast as a motor boat”, “you jump further than a grasshopper”, “you dance like a queen”. For home physical education, you can use exercise games, including musical ones, in which each exercise is pronounced in words. For the youngest, finger games are suitable, a kind of gymnastics, where movements (plot) are performed by gestures.
Games always attract children much more than other forms of activities. Any outdoor games will be a good stepping stone for serious sports.
If there is a goal to perform specific exercises, and the child is difficult and reluctant, the game will come to the rescue again. But this method works until the age of eight.
From home soft toys, you need to choose someone of the largest height and preferably comical appearance. The ideal option is with arms and legs (paws/hooves), and the height is close to the height of the child. As a last resort, buy someone new.
This toy will become a child’s companion for home workouts. The child rocked the abs, now the friend should work out. While the second “athlete” performs the movements, the child rests. Next is the second approach to the exercise, etc. Children quickly get used to such joint work and do not perceive the training as something boring and difficult. It’s fun to teach the monkey Chicha to do the splits! “And the cat Fedya is so fat that he can’t raise his paws with me! I overtook him!”
And the process is ongoing. This is what we, parents, need.
Train together
Joint training allows you to form a habit. In such a natural atmosphere, the child quickly “immerses” in sports and therefore there is no need to invent motivators. Go skiing, skating together, go to a fitness club, swim in the pool, periodically “dilute” it with trips to the water park.
But you need to know the measure in order, firstly, not to discourage the hunt, and secondly, so as not to replace the child’s desires with your own.
Go to sports stores
Believe me, children like them no less than toy stores. Especially if they allow you to see and touch everything there. Better yet, go and play. It is there that a great desire to engage in some kind of sport may appear. And before, the child could simply not know about it.
It is doubly interesting if you yourself are well versed in sports equipment and as if accidentally wander into the right row. Here you can interest the child, show how it works, how to play and just try to buy something.
Even adults acquire new hobbies after visiting sports markets, and even more so a child’s eyes will run wild. Who knows, maybe this is where the great path to sports glory will begin.
Touch the “star”
With children of any age, it is useful to study the success stories of famous athletes. Read autobiographical books, watch movies, subscribe to sports magazines.
Look for meetings with eminent athletes, they are not always unattainable personalities. Many have pages on social networks. There are creative events, book presentations in open areas (often in bookstores), other occasions where it is quite possible to take a picture with the “star” or get an autograph. Maybe we will be lucky, and we will even be able to talk. For the child, this will be a very vivid impression.
Praise and encourage
Some parents think that it is necessary to praise the child only for great victories (otherwise we will overpraise, they say). But psychologists do not agree and recommend doing it for every step forward. I pulled myself up more times, never fell on skates, swam faster – and you never know how many other examples. Say it out loud, give your children moral support, inspire them for future success!
It is also useful to encourage the child, but not “you give for give”, but still for the reason. If you take part in the competition (even if you lose) – you are great, you are brave, we go to the cinema as a reward! Or to an exhibition, to a dinopark, to your favorite café.
But it would be nice to give something for victories. Whether it is related to sports or not is up to you, the main thing here is to build an associative row. So that after a while, the child remembers that day, holding your surprise in his hands.
If your children are seriously engaged in their sport, you can encourage them with new items from the equipment, some new “chips”. Or give your child freedom of choice by presenting a gift card to a sports store.
And the most powerful motivator for sports is the unshakable faith of parents in the success of their children. Tell your child more often how much you love him, admire him, how proud you are of him – no matter what happens. And someday he will definitely dedicate his main victory in life to you!
