Encourage Them to Move
By Fay A. Klingler
In most cases, lifestyles have
changed drastically in the past ten to twenty years. Where
you and I might have been free as children to walk or hike
or play some distance from home without supervision, our
grandchildren may not be safe unattended, sometimes even
in their own backyards.
Affluence and electronics have
also taken their toll. Many children today would rather
play an electronic game, sitting in the comfort of an easy
chair, rather than go outside in the heat or cold and play
a game of ball or sled down a snowy hill. Yet physical fitness
is as important today as it was when we were young. It contributes
to mental alertness and spiritual and emotional well being.
What can we do to help our grandchildren be strong, healthy,
and fit?
Of course the most obvious
answer to me is for us to be good examples, being active
ourselves, as much as our bodies will permit. For those
grandchildren who are involved in sports, showing a sincere
interest by attending their games will help. Where time
and energy are available, volunteering to coach may give
the added benefit of increased family unity or the joy of
meeting a goal together.
One woman told about just such
an experience. “Each year my children’s grandpa acts as
the coach for our family softball team. All the cousins
get together at the park and practice each week. They compete
in the community league. Last year Grandpa and his grandkids
won first place.” (The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book,
Fay A. Klingler, Spring Creek Book Company, p. 105.)
In addition, you could plan
family activities that include movement and take grandchildren
outside, like this grandparent expressed:
In the summer
we have our “Family Olympic Games” at our house. We have
volleyball or basketball competition (family against family);
footraces (there is an adult category, a teen category,
and a child category); a pie-eating and a watermelon-eating
contest; and a ball-toss competition. One year we even had
an archery contest. There are medals or prizes of some sort
for every event. Our grandchildren look forward to this
annual event and talk about it often during the year.
Although the
cousins enjoy competing against each other in the individual
events, we’ve noticed there’s more talk and laughter through
the year about the volleyball or the basketball competition
where family competes against family. (The LDS Grandparents’
Idea Book, Fay A. Klingler, Spring Creek Book Company,
pp. 103-104.)
As the grandchildren participate
in sports, consider taking their individual pictures and
laminating or framing them. Then give the pictures to the
grandchildren as special remembrances.
Plan family camping trips and
provide an insect net and container for each grandchild.
Help them catch and identify grasshoppers, crickets, moths,
and butterflies. Take the grandchildren for a walk or fishing,
sledding, or kite flying. Play a one-on-one game of “Horse”
with them at their backyard basketball hoop. Work on a special
project together, like building and learning how to use
stilts. (I have an old sheet of directions I can scan and
send to you by e-mail, if you are interested.) Enlist the
grandchildren’s help in your household and yard chores,
like this family:
Just as in
the days when families and neighbors used to get together
to help raise someone’s house or barn, our family builds
that same camaraderie through a number of team efforts.
In the fall
we gather at each other’s homes to trim yards and rake leaves.
When someone in the family is sick, we all help with housework
and food preparation. We also help each other with projects
like house painting and fence building. While working together
we talk, laugh, and cry together — we feel joy, warmth,
support; we feel whole. (The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book,
Fay A. Klingler, Spring Creek Book Company, p. 109.)
Brookie Dickerson from Queen
Creek, Arizona, offered this idea:
The first
thought that came to my mind when I read the topic for the
August grandparenting article of encouraging physical fitness
is DANCE!
Put on your
music (50s or 60s tunes) and teach your grandchildren to
jitterbug, stroll, waltz, two-step, or ‘pony.’ Teach them
to line dance. Teach them to exercise to dance music. Dance
with them or applaud as they show off. If you can afford
to (and the parents can't), pay for a grandchild to take
dance lessons. Take them to the ballet. Show them an old
Fred Astair/Ginger Rogers movie. Watch Singing in the
Rain with them. Fast forward through the chit chat and
get up and dance with Debbie Reynolds and Gene Kelly during
the dance scenes. And then when it rains in your neighborhood,
call a grandchild to come and dance in the street with you!
Help them learn to enjoy their ability to move and twirl and
jump and bow.
If
you have an interest in a particular sport, wherever possible,
involve your children and grandchildren. Even if grandchildren
don’t directly participate in the sport, happy thoughts
or memories of events will affect them as they watch and
feel the competitive spirit and the fun bantering that comes
with their parents competing against each other or preparing
to participate as a team. Even if there is only one or two
in your family who choose to participate with you, the whole
family may talk of it. The supporting and encouraging of
those training for and participating in the sport may unite
your family as events draw near.
Last month, in the Salt Lake
Valley, we celebrated Pioneer Day — July 24th.
I had a longstanding goal to run a 10-K when I was 60 years
old. Well, I turn 61 this month, so running the 24th
of July 10K was a necessity to fulfill my goal. I’ve run
a lot of races over the years, and several of my children
have joined me. Because of deteriorating knees, I announced
to my family this would be the last race competition for
me, and I invited children and grandchildren to join me.
I had only one “taker” — my son Marcus.
Because Marcus ran my first
10K with me many years ago in Chicago and I came into the
finish line before him, I had a secret goal of beating him
in this race. As the time for the race came closer, I disclosed
my desire to come in before him. We had a good time teasing
back and forth about how we were going to run and who would
come in first.
My husband and I invited our
whole family for a potluck, pre-race dinner the night before
the race. Marcus and I felt the family’s support as they
wished us luck and we enjoyed a good “carb” meal together.
Marcus and his family spent
the night at our house. We arose at 4:15 to ready ourselves
for the race and travel in the dark to the race site. I
don’t know if Marcus held back to make it possible for me
to fulfill my personal goal, but I did come in four minutes
before him. His wife and daughter were at the finish line
to greet us. Over the years we will talk about this fun
event, look at the pictures in the scrapbook, and continue
the lighthearted bantering over who came in first.
The resulting family camaraderie
is important, but I feel there is so much more my grandchildren
will learn from our involvement in that race event. They
saw two adults working together to meet a goal. They saw
the example of active living. They saw one special, kind
son participating with his mother so she wouldn’t be alone.
And who knows, in this case, one little girl in particular
may have been bitten by the runner’s bug and set a goal
of her own to become a runner and learn, as Brookie said,
“...to enjoy [her] ability to move”!
The author with Marcus and her granddaughter Anisha
