It’s that time of year again, BACK TO SCHOOL! Summer vacation has come and gone and now it’s time to organize school supplies and find a first day outfit. For academic success, let’s start the year back strong and healthy! Here are some health tips for you and your children (children grandchildren, nieces, nephews) to promote positive and healthful behaviors that will help to ensure they have a good year.
Breakfast is a meal your kids don’t want to miss out having before making the bus. This meal provides one with essential nutrients and vitamins that satisfy hunger and aid mental and physical functioning. Research has shown that students who choose to skip breakfast have shown problems in concentration, memory and problem solving.
Educators as well as parents/guardians want to see their children succeed, so it is imperative that we do what we can to nurture an overall positive environment for our students and children. While morning times can be a bit hectic especially when it can be difficult to get up and go, there are some alternative solutions to eating breakfast.
The Breakfast program in schools is a good alternative if you don’t have time at home to eat. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, eating a good breakfast is not only healthful, but aids in better testing scores, less days missed, and overall increased cognition. The Breakfast program at your school may be a good alternative for your child, and is even offered at free or reduced rates. Schools are more required now to abide to the national breakfast/lunch standards when designing a menu and purchasing foods. You can be ensured that your child will receive a sound meal.
Another good alternative to traditional breakfast at home, would be to pack a breakfast-to-go. A meal that is conveniently packed ready to grab and go on a morning may work well for your family. You can even involve your kids with the process. Together you can make a list of some healthy breakfast items they would like to include in their packed meals. Putting it together the night before will save you even more additional time in the morning times.
Physical activity has positive benefits for physical as well as mental health. It has great effects on one’s performance academically according to research. Being physically active has shown to increase positive behaviors in the classroom as well as heightened memory. Physical activity is not any more difficult to receive these days, it’s just that there are more distractions. From social media, iPad, tables, and television, these other platforms of entertainment and fun have taken our attention away from exercise.
It is necessary that your children and you include exercise into your daily lives at home well as well as when they are at school. Research has also shown that physical activity helps student even improve grades and school performance.
So, get involved kids! Participate in gym class, tryout the jungle gym at recess, or even get involved in extracurricular activities when given the opportunity. Activities outside school hours centered around physical activity have produced individuals that tend to have higher GPA, lower dropout rates, fewer behavioral problems. Physical activity includes an entire list of fun, physically strengthening, heart helping activities. So, make sure your child gets 1 hour or more daily at home as well as when in school to benefit them physically and academically.
Technology has a great effect on our daily lives. It seems that we would not be able to do without it in some form. Especially when it does come to academia, the internet assists with providing educational materials, tutorials, and is an easy access to a ton of information. While it does possess some positives, there are some dangers when one becomes consumed by it. According to the Mayo Clinic, weight gain, disruption in sleep, behavioral issues, violent behaviors, and decrease in play are all issues one faces when screen time in not limited.
It is important to set limits on screen time. While some screen time is unavoidable in schools (internet research, online tests, educational videos), it can still be limited and reduced both in the school setting as well as at home. In school using technology for the sole purpose of assignments and limiting use of handheld gaming consoles, phones, tablets can help to reduce screen time. The school setting is a little more difficult, but working along with your child, their peers, and teachers and developing other creative ways to learn materials and spend free time may be very effective.
As for the home environment, more concrete limitations can more easily be formed. Setting limitations as to when and the duration of screen time your child receives may be a good change to pursue. Also setting limitation such as no technology at the dinner table or no charging phones in the rooms at night can help reduce the time spent viewing the screens, and promote social engagement or more quality sleep. Small changes and adjustments can really make the world of difference, and improve overall quality of living and performance in school.
After a good night’s rest, we all feel better, more energized, and ready to attack the day.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, adolescence ages 6-13 need about 9 to 11 hours a sleep each night. Sleep is something our bodies require to re-center us, energize us, and heal us. Researched has shown that being well rested aids one’s ability to recall information (memory) as well as their ability to initial learn it. Harvard Medical School shares a study in which scientists found that “REM sleep seems to plays a critical role in the consolidation of procedural memory”.
So maybe you have to adjust the time that homework gets done, or maybe you need to set a regulate bedtime. Whatever the case is, you need your sleep, and plenty of it. Ensuring your child gets quality rest will increases their academic success!
A Fresh Start
The start of a new school year is an exciting time, especially when it starts off on a good foot. Beginning with a balanced breakfast, exercising daily, limiting screen time, and sleeping well our children will be the healthiest and most successful. Support healthy behaviors at home by being a positive role model. Soon enough everyone in the family will get the rhythm of things and waking them up for school will be the least of your worries. Reinforcing changes may initially be challenging, but in the end the reward will be great! It is all for the betterment of their health as well as yours!
Nisha Moore
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