Ahh finally we reach at the end week of #BlogchatterA2Z and it is second last post of my series.

So far, I had tried to share various creative, intellectual, fun activities and DIYs with series. And I am hoping these activities will help to spend some quality time with kids along with learning and creativity.

And now, when we are towards the end of the series, I am talking about one of the most important activities for kids, in this post. I am talking about “Physical activities” and making the kids physically active.

Though physical activities are totally a different zone and I am not an expert in that field, but I am trying to sharing easy and interesting ways to make our kids physically active ( at the comfort of our own home)

We lived in an era where childhood obesity is one of the biggest health problems and it is very important to make our kids physically active to fight with this major health threat.

What is childhood obesity? And how can we use power of digital media especially the YouTube channels to inspire them, being physically active? Read on to know more!

What is Childhood obesity?

 Childhood obesity is a serious problem across the world putting kids at risk for poor health. Obesity is increasing at an alarming rate throughout the world. It is estimated that more than 300 million obese people worldwide. According to report from urban south India, 21.4% of boys and 18.5 % of girls aged 13-18 years were overweight or obese. The percentage of children who were obese increased tremendously in last few years. Curbing childhood obesity is a fight for all of us. There are several contributing factors for childhood obesity such as

• Genetic factors, children whose parents are obese may be at an increased risk of becoming overweight themselves
• Lack of physical activity, is the second important cause for childhood obesity. The average child spends approximately 4 hours each day watching television
• Unhealthy eating habits, is another important contributing factor that leads to childhood obesity.
• Sometimes hormonal disorders are responsible for childhood obesity.
• Psychological factors, some kids may turn to food as a coping mechanism for dealing with problems or negative emotions. Such as anxiety, tension and depression.

 Unfortunately, this may lead to serious consequences such as childhood obesity put children on the path of several health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and blood cholesterol. Many obese children become obese adult and may have low self-esteem, depression and other behaviour and learning problems.

Of course, prevention is the best strategy to reduce the risk of complications. And making healthy life style changes are must for that. Making healthy food choices is one of the integral parts of obesity prevention but getting kids into the habit of being active early is equally important.  Unfortunately, it is not as easy as sound. Usually, lots of parents struggle with it.

 Usually, most of the kids had some common issue when we force them to being physically active.

• They did not find it interesting and get bored easily
• They want change and variation
• They want more fun, instead of learning
• They hate to get forced or pressurised

Along with this common problems, sometimes climatic conditions are also create a major obstacle to being physical active. Like in USA (I had spent more than 4 years in Connecticut and Dublin, where 7-8 months of years are freezing cold) the weather has been identified as a perceived barrier to participate in physical activity. 

But on brighter side, we lived in the age of high tech world and if we use power of this digital medium wisely, it can help a lot to solve so many problems easily.

I am sure most of the kids nowadays love YouTube and they spent more than 2 hours every day by watching their favourite stuffs on it. So why not use their favourite activity to inspire them being physically active.

So for that purpose, I had done some research and explored some great YouTube channels for kids. These channels will help a lot to kids being physically active.

I had used these channels for my both girls (especially during harsh winter); they always had a great time while doing some fun workout and dance with the help of these channels.

 Here I am sharing information about these channels. Hoping it will help others.

YouTube channels for kids

Kids love music and dance

The first and most common way to inspire kids for being physically active is to incorporate exercise routine with exciting music. You can either choose exercise songs to motive kids or adopt a dance exercise routine to make it fun and enjoying.

Patty Shukla kids TV has excellent collection of exercise songs for kids that includes action, dancing, jumping and other exciting moves with melodious music.

USP:

• Kids will never get bored with this kind of exercise. The catchy tunes and speed up songs entertain them for hours.
• This series not only help in keep kids physically active but also build a sense a rhythm and music as well.
• The learning station also has great collection of action and exercise songs for kids. It is a series from the award winning CD “kid’s country and dance”. Kids would just love it.

Kids love animals

Children and animals are a match made in heaven. Kids have a natural urge and fasciation for animals that runs much deeper than simple curiosity. The animal world is a natural place for kids to get just started. So why not incorporate their favourite thing to their workout routine.

Here is an interesting video by cat’s weight loss, where instructor has included some great fitness moves along with kid’s favourite animals and birds. Kids will have great fun with learning.

USP:

• great for smaller kids
• Kids can learn about different animals along with getting exercised.
• Can be done as a “Group “or “Mom and me” activity.

Kids love games and pretend play

Kids love fun games and pretend play. And it is another brilliant idea to keep kids active. Here is a great 25 minute fun workout video from fitness blender.com that includes some well-known games (red light, green light) along with a simple fun workout. Kids would surly loved it.

USP:

• Great for siblings (both can have great fun and learning with this)
• It includes all basics of exercise very effectively that will help kids in future too.

Kids love animation

Another thing that fantasized kids very easily is animation. They had a natural tendency to drawn towards animations. It sparks their imagination and they can relate more to animation characters and just love the world that animation presents. So why not blend animation to work out for creating an interesting theme.

Here is a very informative video by kid’s education, where the king of jungle “Lion” is explaining the importance of exercise to kids along with other animals. Kids will love this exciting animation video, and will get involved in exercise without any extra effort.

USP:

Kids love explanation. They often had curiosity and questions regarding why is exercise important? What are the benefits? This video has a great explanation about different body parts and particular exercise for different part? Children will learn a lot about functionality of our body and ideal way of exercise easily.

It has also included the timing of each exercise that is another important guideline for doing it correctly.

Kids’ yoga

Whenever we heard the word “Yoga”, we immediately had a thought that it is a serious business and requires so much regular practice and patience. Of course, yoga is an ancient science and it should be practised under proper guidance and supervision. But if you had zeal to learn this great form of relaxing exercise, here are the ways to keep your kids motivate and involved.

Kid’s cosmic yoga

I had also explored this innovative form of yoga recently. Kids love story telling, they are ready to learn anything, when we mixed the concept of storytelling with any learning activity. Cosmic kid’s yoga has done the same thing. It has some amazing videos that incorporate excellent yoga moves with interesting story narrations. Frozen, allice in wonderland, star wars…I am sure kids would love this innovative way of exercising.

USP

• One of the best and innovative forms of yoga.
• Kids will never get board because of interesting story narrations.
• It includes various kids’ favourite themes that make learning really fun.

Animation yoga series

Again if your kid loves animation, here is another good animation yoga series by appuseries. You can use it as guidance.

If you want to keep an organizing approach for your yoga lessons, here is a great yoga series by Mia Merit for proper guidance.

So these are some great Youtube channels for kids that has great videos! which one is your child’s favourite youtube channels? please share!

this post is a part of #BlogchatterA2Z hosted by blogchatter.