Being realistic how much exercise do you children get..do you think its enough?

[pepsi]

Ive read that children age 5 and about need an hours exerise a day. Does this mean constant exercise. We have been to the park this morning and were there for over an hour, although they were running about they werent running for all of it. Will they make up the rest by running about the house. On a usual school day does the 10 mins each way to school and whatever they do in the playground constitute enough exercise?

your jaunt this morning sounds good, but I'd want a good 20 minutes extra excercise on top of what you describe as the usual school day. Just jumping on father/the sofa/the dog/a mini trampoline in the back yard in addition to that, but I'm thinking about boys really

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Let's see....

DS1 will be 13 next week. He's very active, one of those kids who never sits still. Even when he's sat down his feet are twitching ! I would say he gets quite a lot of 'passive exercise' from just being a restless type. He also loves sports and things.

DS2 is 11.5, he isn't restless like his brother but does more 'playing out' whereas DS prefers his PS2.

DD is 2.8, she is another restless one and is always on the go. I try to get her out on foot for at least 20 mins every day, but she does a lot of active play in the house. We also go to soft play centres etc where she never stops !

My 5yo does roughly 10 min/day each way, getting to/from school, plus close to 1 hour in playground (morning playtime + lunchtime play). So about the same as you, and definitely plenty for my DS. At parent's evening his teacher's only concern was how tired my DS gets in the afternoons, so I wouldn't want him to do any more.

Children just need to play preferably outside, riding a bike, roller skating, running, playing tig etc. My kids all do at least one hour of physical stuff per day, lets say either gym at school or 7ry does football traing twice a week and swimming 1x per week., 5yr and 6yr do gym at school 2 x per week plus ballet class 1x per week plus general outdoor bike riding etc. I activly encourage my kids to be sporty, we have long walks, bike rides, it is all about getting them into habits which will stay with them all their life. My philosophy on bringing up kids is simple, they eat good meals, drink lots of water and play in the fresh air in sun rain and snow and go to bed early. They also eat sweets and have pizza's!!!! And if I let them they would drink loads of coca cola and drown all thier food in ketchup.

My older kids do games everyday at school, in addition to their PE classes and whatever they do at breaktimes.

My younger ones walk to and from school, do PE, and play on climbing frames.

tbh, if your kids walk to and from school, you dont need to worry that much. as long as they are not then glued to tv playstation etc.
i know kids who get chauffered everywhere, dont ride a bike, and only get excercise at the once a week swimming class they get chauffered too.

i agree with hondadreams philosophy .My 5 year old walks 20 mins to school and then back , does gym in school and athletics 2x per week .My 2 year old just never stops for breath anyway but does playgroups etc .Think its equally important to have some kiddy slob time too - watching a movie etc.Hence we never get dressed till lunchtime on saturdays .Or does that just make me a slob mother ?

My 7yo ds gets play at lunchtime at school and then goes to the park or for a walk (at least 2 miles) often at the weekend. When we walk to school and back, which we don't always do, he also gets 20 minutes there and 20 mins back but often plays football in the park with other children on the way back too, so more like 40 mins on the return journey. We keep PS to twice a week but sometimes let him and friends have eyetoy on non ps2 days, since it's so physical, they really have to move about a lot. I think it's enough but he definitely, definitely needs it and is noticeably antsy if we don't do anything physical enough.

My four year old walks to her childminder and back, which is over half a mile both ways, and gets a fair bit of walking and playtime while she's there too.

hey jjash, I lie in bed on Sundays until 10am (wow) and my kids make their own toast.. or so I thought, I then discovered they had been in the sweetie cupboard. How much higher can it go? It is now very well hidden although I am sure the sniffer dogs will find it!. Its all about balance, we then usually go and do a 10k bike ride!!! But I need my Sunday down time and I don't care really if they nick swets and watch cbeebies for two hours as during the week they are sooo busy.