My child knew he was not getting enough exercise

 
We all know that exercise is good for us.  It keeps our heart healthy, helps maintain our weight, improves our mood, keeps us at low risk for a plethora of medical issues, the list goes on and on.  For those of us who exercise on a regular basis we know it and can feel it if we do not get our exercise in.   Kids are the same as us adults... they need the exercise.   For the little ones at my house who are not in school yet we dance each day, do work out videos (which is hysterical by the way... there is nothing cuter then 2 and 3 yr old trying to do push ups) we play games like duck duck goose and ring around the Rosie.  All in the name of using our muscles.  The older kids though... that's a different story.  Physical activity is not treated as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic anymore.   I learned just recently that I need to pay a little more attention to the amount of exercise my children are getting at home because the amount at school is NOT enough... at least not enough for my high energy boys!

Not to long ago my 3rd graders teacher called me at home to tell me that my sons behavior was a little distracting, and that he was not very attentive in class.   My son is all boy and loves to act goofy so although I could picture in my head exactly what she was talking about, I was still taken off guard and a little shocked.  This was the first phone call ever I had gotten in regards to him not behaving and I did not like it.  I assured her that his behavior would be better the next day.  Well the next day came and I got a little note saying that he was still distracting and unattentive in class.   At this point in time I am fuming, I promised her he would behave and I thought I had made it extremely clear to my child what my expectations for of his behavior were the night before when I handed down his punishment.   For the record I just happen to get lucky with the punishment.  The teachers phone call just happen to be on a highly awaited cub scout meeting day. My son knew he would be recognized for his hard work and would receive a marshmallow shooter.  I took him to the meeting and then took the marshmallow shooter away before he even had a chance to open it.  It sits in our dinning room just waiting for some devious child to pick it up and launch marshmallows at some unsuspecting individual.  (I do not think it will have to wait much longer...I foresee an all out marshmallow attack happening in the near future)  When I saw the note I just looked at him with my disappointed mommy face and asked "why?"    He responded with "I don't know mom it is probably because we only got 5 min outside today"   It was interesting to hear him say this because I had been concerned with their lack of physical play lately but had not expressed those concerns with him.  Now some might have taken this as just an 8 yr old making excuses for his bad behavior to get out of trouble but I found it to be a perfect opportunity to turn it into an experiment.   "Ok Coop.  I will agree that 5 min is NOT enough time for any young child so guess what tomorrow morning I am going to help you get some exercise in before school".   Since he is trying to run 25 miles before April for a children's marathon he is participating in I decided to have him run one mile before school two or three days a week.   At least on the days that I know it is going to be to cold for the children to have outdoor recess.  I will admit that waking him up a little early to get on the treadmill might seem extreme to some and on some days he does not want to get out of bed but by the time he puts on his shoes he is in the mood and once he gets on the treadmill he is all smiles.   The first week we tried this out the days that he ran he got a good report from school.  There was a day he did not run but had gym, he did well and got a good report that day too but the day that there was no gym class and no running he got another note home that he was distracting.  I found this interesting so I continued with my little experiment this week.   This week however we have had a couple days that it was warm enough to spend some time outside so he has gotten more exercise just from playing outside after school.  That said though so far every day this week he has come home with a good report. 

I think my son was right at just 8 years old the child knew what his body needed.  I have read that children need 60 min of physical activity each day.  When I thought about it I realized that Cooper was not getting nearly that amount in.  Except on the days that he had gym class but that is only two days a week.   I could safely say that he was getting in under 15 min of walking to and from school and was getting about 15 min at recess time.  That is only 30 min, half of what I read was the recommendation for children.  That's assuming the weather is good and the kids get an outdoor recess.  We live in MI so we have indoor recess a lot and indoor recess only includes board games, movies, coloring and quite activities.  No wonder my kid was not attentive.   Up until this week he would come home from school, work on homework, eat dinner, have a little free play, get ready for bed, read and then lights out.  This week weather was nice so I added 15-30 min of physical play time before he did his home work.  I also added an extra 5-10 min each morning right before we walk to school for the kids to play outside.   It could be a coincidence but I don't think so.  The kids do not have school tomorrow but I can not wait to see how he does next week.  I honestly think this lack of phyical activity has everything to do with his lack of attention at school.  Keeping my fingers crossed