reducing obesity in children ..

[clumsymum]

By teaching them all to cook. Will it work, or should they look at turning back the clock, getting all the school playing fields back, and getting them more active again.

my parents couldnt afford to take me to expensive classes either
neither of them could swim
my older cousin took me swimming every saturday

otherwise we played on bikes in street or at park

think back to waht you did as a child for ideas

nailpolish, sorry only just got back to this. All I meant was that parents who work only have the weekends to do sports with their kids, whereas it should be done more often than that to have any effect. But by the time they get home, do dinner, bath etc there may not be time to all go our cycling/swimming etc.

Yes, you have to be on benefits for incentive schemes. There are many free things to do such as riding a bike or playing rounders

hipp

weekday exercise could be walking to school and back

nothing wrong with an activity on a saturday dnn another on a sunday - thats better than nothing

That's a good idea

Also following on from the smuggery unlimited thread, how about getting them all to clean?

With dusters and hoovers and stuff.

My 9yo dd1 loves to cook.

Fairy cakes (with lots of icing and hundreds and thousands), all butter flapjacks, melted chocolate with rice crispies thrown in, victoria sponge cakes (she likes the pretty pattern you can make on top with icing sugar), scones (if we have clotted cream in the house) .....

Exercise, exercise, exercise.

Yes, I agree, of course daily walking is fab. I thought people were aiming for more than that, but of course it is a start!

I had organised sports (football, cycling ect) in mind, sorry.

I'm sorry I don't buy the "go for a walk" one - well I walk EVERYWHERE - and doesn't help me loose any weight - not sure how it's any different for children tbh. and with the school next door I'm afraid "walk to school schemes" for us are a bit of a daft idea .

TBH it pisses me off - DS1 is really keen to "get into" a sport of some description - but all the affordable ones are just too far away/over subscribed. He's not even vaguely interested in Karate or Judo - only 2 easy to get to ones that we could afford

what did I do as a kid - rode my bike (DS1 as yet can't - yes on the street - but no way in hell am I letting my kids loose on their bikes round these roads - far too busy - the streets we lived around when I was DS1's age were practically deserted between 8 and 6 (when all the dads were out at work LOL). DB and I went down to the beach (about 20 minutes walk away) - I was about 4/5 - he was 8/9..........not sure that would be wholey acceptable or wise these days.

Oh and my mum used to take us on really long hikes.......the advantage of living in a tiny village on the coast .

i always say if you really want to do something you will find a way

Try the local bike shop - the bike shop in our village organised evening rides. So a whole group of cyclists riding together. Dh and Ds are going to try this group once the evenings are lighter. And somehow I feel happier at the idea of ds out in a big group as opposed to just him and dh.

Ermmm...Today, I think there is a difference between Kids bringing knifes as weapons to school and Kids being allowed to use sharp knifes under supervision in a class...

anyway, I do think that it's good if children learn to cook in school...sadly it seems to be an art lost in many families....

Parents should possibly also be made to learn to cook

And maybe if all healthy basic foods would be dirt cheap and junkfood really expensive...people mihgt use less junk food...

folk would still eat junk food. It's the nature of people.

hm...if it wasn't available it couldn't be bought

Of course treats are in our nature...but junkfood is addictive, thanks to all them lovely ingredients...so...hm....we don't need it to survive...

surely a homemade cake forinstance is much nicer anywya, you know what's in it...still fattening if you eat to much of course...but ...well...you get my drift...

I had a conversation with my 26 year old neice last week who admitted to never buying fresh fruit or vegetables.
She didnt even realise that cooking fresh food is actually cheaper tan buying processed crap. Almost fell of her chair when I suggested home made rather than ready meals, etc.
She had cookery lessons at school for a year - didnt do her much good.

FAQ

Have you thought about swimming or football? I forced mine to do swimming more from a safety perspective than anything else but it's really good for their fitness.

Football groups are everywhere and my DS just loves it. I can't stand the game but he's happy. It's really really cheap as well.

Quattro - did you read my posts above about swimming? I can't take them on my own - and if DH and I were to manage to take them in the 2hr "free time" slot on a Saturday afternoon (unlikely) - it would cost us nearly £10 for us all to go!

Football - far too expensive - we're looking at a minimum of approx £15 a month - and that's before we have to buy any kit and impossible to get to without a car (unless you count the occasionaly half hearted kick around the garden/park that DS1 musters up when we go).

FAQ

Sorry missed your swimming post but was so struck by your post about finding it difficult to arrange sporty things.

There must be swimming clases though FAQ? They are all run locally here free of charge, although there are a number of private (and pricey) swimming schools too.

Once you've got the oldest one swimming and watersafe, you can concentrate on the tots. It literally only takes about six or seven lessons to get them swimming. I've taken three under 7 swimming and it was a breeze but only because 2 of them could swim - once you've got passed that bit it's easy and you feel so much safer when they are around water ...

I have vision of DS1 being like me - I have had (literally) years of swimming lessons - and although I can do several lengths of (rather dodgy) backstroke - can still only manage a short distance in what can only be described as "doggy paddle" . I had private lessons at private pools, school swimming lessons, my mum tried and tried, friends tried - but I just can't do a decent stroke on my front (I can however safe a life as I can do my dodgy backstroke and drag someone along with me ).

Have to pay for swimming lessons round here (apart from the weekly school ones which DS1 will start in September when he moves up to middle school).

Our pool doesn't allow 3 children under 8 with only one adult - strict 2 children under 8 to one adult policy.

oh but 3andnomore, you are not suggesting that junkfood is OUTLAWED because some people misuse it, I hope?

I mean start with Turkey Twizzlers, KFC and McDs, but where would you stop? It could go all the way to not being able to buy a packet of Rich Tea Fingers, because they're processed food too.

Well what do mine do - they do lots of stuff at school - this term DD has tennis, hockey, netball and plays these daily (two lots of hockey and two lots of netball). DS does rugby, cross-country and swimming and plays these daily.

So I reckon they should be doing a fair chunk of these sports at school.

Outside school, we have swimming and football, and also tennis, which is just fab. The football seems ridiculously expensive round your way, but what about tennis? That's a local club, you don't have to pay to join, it costs £3 each for match practice, it's really good for them. They've learned to do topspin, whatever that is.