How to get your kids to spend more time moving with a simple recipe called physical literacy

A proven and simple recipe to get kids moving is called physical literacy.  

“The power of this recipe comes from the three healthy ingredients that ‘boost’ each other’s goodness. It’s a perfect circle.”

Serve kids a daily diet of games and activities made up of roughly  ⅓ skills development, ⅓ confidence-boosting, and ⅓ love of movement and they’re on their way to building the very healthy habit of being active. 

Our society has changed a lot in a short period of time.  Apple launched its first iPhone in 2007. Since then, smartphones have evolved to be more powerful, easier to use, and more addictive. Think about how it has become part of your daily routine.

Now think about kids born in the smartphone era. They have instant access to unlimited entertainment and social connection. And kids can’t resist, so they spend hours every day in the digital world. 

But it’s not only technology that’s nudging kids to be inactive. Playing outdoors with other kids was a daily routine for previous generations, but it’s not for today’s kids.  

Over the last 20 years or so, play has moved from outdoors and active to indoors and sedentary. As a result, kids are moving less than they ever have. And that’s not good. 

Faced with a generation of inactive kids, some revert to solutions that worked in the past. They use the “tell kids to go play outside like my mom used to do” recipe.   

But it’s a very different world with new challenges that require new solutions and new recipes. 

One issue was that programs were heavy on skill acquisition at the expense of fun and active play. Imagine a class of Grade 7 students waiting in line to kick the soccer ball once every five minutes. They may have improved their kicking skills, but not their confidence or their love of soccer.

This recipe served to kids did not taste right to them. It had too much instruction and not enough play. It might have gotten them to move in class, but it led many kids to dislike physical education.

It  is alarming that today’s kids grow up in a world that reinforces sedentary habits. The unintended outcome is that kids develop inactive and sedentary habits. As we know, habits that are learned early in life are hard to break.

Physical literacy is the perfect recipe to achieve this goal. Imagine a world in which kids choose to move because they’ve learned to enjoy being active. Imagine these kids choosing to stay active through their teens and into adulthood.