We’re delighted to feature this guest blog from our partner Energise Me who are passionate about helping children and young people move more every day. In this post, they highlight the importance of regular physical activity and share top tips to make movement fun, achievable, and part of everyday life.
Daily Activity
Daily activity plays a key role in developing happier, healthier and stronger children and young people. It helps them concentrate better, sleep better, build confidence. So, how can we make moving more everyday feel doable?
What are the guidelines for Daily Activity?
Daily Activity guidelines – 30 minutes at school and 30 minutes at home physical activity guidelines
The Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) guidelines recommend that children and young people should engage in moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity for an average of at least 60 minutes per day across the week. Disabled children and young people should be getting 20 minutes of exercise a day and doing strength and balance activities three times a week.
Daily activity can consist of activity at home and at school. The Chief Medical Officer guidelines recommend a minimum of 30 minutes at school and 30 minutes at home.
Why is Daily Activity Important?
Just a bit of movement each day can make a huge difference to how children and young people feel, focus, and connect. And these benefits add up over a lifetime.
What Counts As Daily Activity?
Daily Activity doesn’t have to mean playing sports or running laps. It’s really anything that helps children and young people to move more and sit less.
This could be walking or cycling to school, dancing to their favourite song, spending time outside, or doing a star jump when they hear a specific word on the TV. It could even be house chores! We all know those get the blood pumping.
It’s also important to remember that the 30 minutes of movement that children and young people should be doing at home, doesn’t need to be in one long block! If your child comes home at 4pm and goes to bed at 9pm, that’s only 6 minutes of movement per hour. That’s 2 songs!
Top Tips to Get Children and Young People On Board
So, how can you help get children and young people moving every day?
- Make it fun: If they’re smiling, they’ll want to do it again.
- Give choice: Let children and young people help decide how they get moving.
- Start small: A few extra minutes a day really does make a difference.
- Celebrate effort: Don’t make the priority ‘getting things right’ just celebrate that they’ve moved more.
- Mix it up: Variety keeps it fresh and engaging.
- Build on current hobbies: If your children or young people have a current hobby, try embedding physical activity into that. For example, if they love reading – encourage them to stand while they read two pages or lunge across the room when they turn a page. If they love gaming – encourage them to lift their legs while sitting when their game restarts.
Visit the Energise Me website to see some of our stories around supporting young people to be active.
