How do you encourage movement and activity in your young children? Share your tips - £200 voucher to be won

[EllieSmumsnet]

We all know how important it is to keep kids active, but did you know that regular physical activity in early childhood is key to supporting their health, development, and confidence? Small bursts of movement throughout the day can help children build important skills, stay healthy, and even improve their focus and mood.

If you’re looking for inspiration, the Youth Sport Trust’s Healthy Movers resources are full of fun, practical ways to add more movement to your child’s daily routine – whether it’s through active play, short exercises, or creative activities that get them up and moving. We’d love to hear from you: How do you encourage your little ones to stay active?

• Post your tips in the thread below to be entered into a prize draw
• One lucky MNer will win a £200 VEX voucher for a store of their choice.

Here is what Youth Sport Trust has to say:

“Did you know fewer than one in five children (ages 0-5) in the UK are moving enough to stay healthy? A lack of movement in childhood can have lifelong implications on brain development and lead to serious health problems later in life, including obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and other preventable health issues.

"At the Youth Sport Trust, we have launched a new film to raise awareness of the potential health impacts of a lack of movement in childhood. Starting healthy habits from an early age builds strong bodies, minds, and life skills. We’d love to hear about how you encourage your little ones to stay active or any challenges you face."

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

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I taught mine to roller skate really young so we could go to rollerdisco together and also skate in the park. It’s such a fun activity that it doesn’t feel like you’re exercising and my daughter could never get enough. If she wasn’t on 4 wheels she was wearing heelies round the supermarket! Non stop fun on wheels!

Love a good scavenger hunt or treasure hunt. Started these at Easter but they got so much joy from it I tried hunts outside in nature too. Instead of suggesting a 'walk' if you can make it more fun, the walk becomes more appealing.
Scavenger hunts can be anything from looking for things that begin with a particular letter to bugs and animals.
Treasure hunts are also good as gets them thinking whilst racing to get the next clue.
We've also done these in the house on rainy days too 😊

Learning dance choreography using videos, extra curricular activities like basketball and dancing. Getting one's own exercise in and including the children, a nice run together or using the hoops in the park. Children are so naturally fast, it is genuine competition as they get older and good fun.

My 2 youngest grandchildren are constantly on the go. Encouraged by .mum they climb, paddle and walk/run everywhere ,every day. As a low mobility nan I have had to be inventive. Dinosaurs are a big favourite so I found dinosaur exercises on you tube, also dancing but the real favourite is running after me on my mobility scooter all over the park.

With my grandson l find he likes to start our day with stories & fun time then we go for a walk with the dog.we will play in the park if it’s not too cold or we head home & play games at home, bowling down the entrance hall is always great fun running to out the pins back up, hide & seek followed by some dancing with Grannie before lunch after lunch we have a rest & read more stories together before we walk they dog again then it’s games like musical statues; balancing blocks and adding to them as we walk around them until they topple over.
our time together is so precious we cram in as much as we can we mix it up with trips to the farm & soft play but when it’s time for grannie to head home I’m not sure who’s more exhausted my grandson or me; I love every second with him; it’s a three hour round trip but seeing him laughing & running around is worth every second of travelling xx

My 5yo DS has always had huge amounts of energy so always does at least 2h exercise per day, preferably outdoors. Walk to school and back, go to the park or the woods after school most days, after-school sports, public transport or bike/scooter when we can. At the weekends we usually go hillwalking, he can manage about 10k and is faster than I am on the uphill! I think we often underestimate childrens' stamina.

I made sure she was booked into weekly swimming lessons from a very young age, I took my her from 1 and then she started going on her own by 3 or 4. I encourage any interest in any extra curriculars so she said she liked tennis, got her weekly tennis lessons, she said she liked dancing, got her in weekly dancing lessons etc etc. the tennis flopped but she did swimming and dancing up until now and she’s 11. She also happily took up joining school cricket, netball and football all so she could have some trophies to show people. I guess it’s mainly just ensuring that every opportunity is given to them?
I also was very easy on her with it, if she wasn’t feeling up to dancing one week we don’t go, there’s no pressure but I make sure she knows she only gets one skip day and then she absolutely has to go to the next few. I’m very clear I’m paying a lot of money for it and won’t waste let it go to waste.

My children are grown up but when they were younger I took my daughter to 'Tumble Tots and they both went to 'Gym Joey's'. My son belonged to Beavers then cubs followed by scouts and explorers. He also attended football/rugby clubs at school. My daughter did ballet right up to the time she went to university. She belonged to the afterschool hockey club at high school. She belonged to Rainbows, then Guides and then Rangers where she did her Duke of Edinburgh Award . They both had swimming lessons and our holidays were taken in the UK, with lots of walking involved.

Making walking, scooting and cycling everywhere the norm. We don’t have a car, and this is one of several reasons why. We use public transport when we need to (which also inevitably involves some walking). It’s a win for our family’s health and a win for the planet too!

Dont give in to whinging when they resist a walk! They always end up enjoying it once they are out of the house. Normalise walking instead of taking the car for short journeys.

teach them how to ride a bike 🚲 start with a balance bike, once they are gliding with both feet off the floor they are ready to switch to a pedal bike with no stabilisers. Their balance is there, they just need to learn to pedal.

DD was riding her bike at 3 & we would encourage her with a lap of the large local park, as we walked with her, followed by a trip to the playground/ splash park 😁

I think the more useful question to ask is, what is discouraging children from running around and playing? Instead of it being a parent's problem that they need to encourage exercise, it's likely a combination of circumstances that discourages physical activity, which is what actually needs to be addressed.

Walking to the shops, to the post box etc instead of automatically reaching for the car keys

Both Mine started tots tennis when they were 3. The older one now plays 4-5 times a week.

They both do swimming lessons.

We go for bike rides, their favourite ‘play’ at home is gymnastics on a yoga mat.

Dance lessons too.

My youngest never stops moving 😂 football, drama, cubs, more football, climbing…for any reluctant children, I’d say try everything until they find their thing.

My granddaughter who is 6 goes to modern dancing and ballet school. They also put on shows.

I have her brother and her on a weekend and we usually put dance and zumba on from YouTube.

She loves to show me her latest moves.

My grandson is in Beavers which is active and they have regular camping/hostel trips. He is 7.

We are quite active when they are down on a weekend. I always ensure we go out, even if it's just for a walk locally.

They also do swimming classes on a Sunday

It's very important for all young people to be active and have screen time outside as we live in a different world now where activity is on tap and children entertaining themselves is not really something they have to think about.

I use the Internet myself so I'm not a moany grandparent about screen time, with balance. It's ensuring balance

To keep mine active we have lots of role play toys in the nursery, and when we need to go out we will walk, we do nature trails, got to museums, go to the park, and a petting zoo to keep active, learn and get fresh air - try to be out and about as much as we can - distractions can help my two DS from squabbling, they act as a dynamic duo when we are out anywhere - only become frenemies when we get home.

Going for walks with added easy 'challenges' helps to motivate children to go for the same local walk (if that's the only available option that day). Challenges include things like: walk like a crab to the next lamp-post; jump along twenty times; be a jellyfish until the bus stop; dance to the next blue door... kept my 10-year-old really keen to go for daily walks when otherwise they were becoming less exciting things to do.

We go to the various parks in our area. We have several outdoor toys in our front and back yards for them to play. We even have a sand pit at my mothers to keep them occupied outside.

Lots of cycling. Started out with baby seats on our bikes (obviously not much exercise for the kids, but got them into the idea of cycling!), or a bike trailer, then they graduated to balance bikes when big enough and then their own small bikes, riding a tag-bike behind mum or dad, which meant we could do longer and road rides which they wouldn't yet be able to manage on their own, and eventually becoming fully-fledged cyclists themselves who enjoy road and mountain biking, know how to look after their own bikes, etc. All the bikes and kit were sold on or passed along when outgrown (and usually bought second-hand or passed on to us too), which helped keep the cost down. Now I just need to get mine out of the garage again... (but maybe after the ice melts!).

Dancing, stretching and shaking. Do it while they're little and they want to join in and think it's normal (which it is). After half an hour on the screens turn them off and have a dance.
I'm a grandma now but when my two girls were little we had a long walk home from school. To keep them going I used to get them to walk me and copy my funny walks; hopping, a cantor,skipping, long strides. It got us home and they loved it. Used to get a few funny looks but we didn't care

I couldn't drive until my youngest was 4. They walked, scooted and cycled many miles daily just walking to nursery and school daily. We often stopped at the park on the way back.

Just having a mindset of walking rather than taking the car for journeys less than 1 mile is really helpful (even if that means using the buggy for longer)

This is really important too, the design of many places actively discourage walking and cycling in a child friendly manner because they are so car dominant that it doesn't feel safe. If parents don't feel safe walking with their child, they will drive more, the child associates driving as 'normal' and the problem perpetuates.

I used to take my twins to the park twice a day when they were preschoolers, to help burn off their energy. They would climb up the slide and climbing frames over and over, run around on the grass and on fine days go in the paddling pool. Happy days.

In wet or freezing weather, we'd go to soft play or walk around the shopping mall
As they got older, we went for walks and bike rides and swimming.

I'd much prefer to be outdoors than trying to entertain my DC's indoors, we go swimming, to free museums, local parks which have a good range of activities, feeding the ducks and 'helping' in our allotment and greenhouse