Parents are often heard saying aloud “move outside and play” at their children who are stuck to either their computers or TV. As per a recent survey by the Alliance for Childhood, kids are reported to spend 50% less time in imprecise outdoor physical activities than kids, back in 1970’s. Reduced duration of recess in schools, increased time spent in TV watching and computer game, lack of parents’ participation in kids’ play, risks of safety and crime are considered main reasons why kids spend lesser time in outdoor activities in kids. Children aged between 10 to 16 years are found to spend just 12.6 minutes a day in vitalizing physical activity. So, what can parents do to stimulate their children to take up more physical activities and reduce hours spent in front of TV and computers? These days, gadgets and widgets attract most of the children, hence, we have rounded up some effective gadgets below that parents can take advantage of to promote physical activities in your kids.
GeoPalz ($20)
GeoPalz app is a widely used pedometer which is made customized for children’s activities. This app comes in various designs such as, Sports, Rock, Cutesy, and Edgy that kids can choose from. After choosing one, they can start with their outdoor activities as they can “walk to win”. This pedometer helps kid record steps online and based on their count of steps they will redeem gift cards, awards and many prizes. Those prizes offered online are for free, parents only need to pay shipping and handling charges. Kids can download GeoPalz on their iPhones for free to use with their pedometer. This iPhone app comes handy in tracking physical activity in sync with a numerical pedometer. It also maps how many steps kids have taken and shows a GPS map to track total distance covered by them.
Switch 2 Health’s S2H Replay ($19.95)
The Switch 2 Health’s S2H Replay digital watch also motivates kids to engage in more outdoor activities with the allure of reward system. This watch has fun way to enable kids earn rewards for exercising. Being available in a wide range of kid-friendly colors, the watch is very familiar to kids’ as it is most similar with other pedometers. The S2h Replay alert them as they achieve 60 minutes of physical activity and will display a code which is to use to redeem gift cards from Amazon, Toys R Us, and many more. At the same time, if kids are not moving enough, a frowning face will surface to alert them that they are not taking enough outdoor activities; likewise, a happy face appears when they are doing exercises in the right count.
Your kids can also use Zamzee, which will launch devise a similar type of incentives based device. This device is designed for teens – they need to wear this meter to keep track of their steps of walking, dancing, skateboarding, cheerleading, and many more.
I also have a suggestion for parents, who have kids of 5-10 years old. It is an educational iPhone app Kinder Hangman – http://sharkfuel.com/kinderhangman.html that is an interesting iPhone game and very useful for development of kids. It allows children to learn new words easily, effectively and quickly. Learning process is organized as an interesting game with graphical themes and animations. It is a good game that kids usually like very much. So, parents can use it to keep kids busy.
don`t believe children should be overloaded with technical stuff and its rays. We`re already surrounded by so many. I prefer to take them to the woods and mountains and the nature in the free time as much as I love gadgets!