(un)fencing the mind » kids http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog Mon, 07 Jun 2010 19:04:42 +0000 en hourly 1 Kids and their body skills (19) http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog/2009/12/kids-and-their-body-skills-19/ http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog/2009/12/kids-and-their-body-skills-19/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:03:13 +0000 Elmine Wijnia http://elmine.wijnia.com/weblog/?p=211 I’m reading a (German) book on kids’ body development that I picked up in a bookstore in Dresden this summer. I won’t get into details here, but the numbers are rather shocking. The amount of time kids (in this case based on German research, but the numbers could easily be representative for the whole of Europe) spend on playing outside and using their body to walk, run, play games, balance on walls, etc. dropped dramatically over the past decades.

Obviously sitting in front of the TV and playing video games have great impact on what kids nowadays learn in terms of body skills. At my fencing club I’ve seen quite a number of kids that can barely catch a ball, can’t jump rope or balance on 1 foot for more than 5 seconds at age 8/9/10.

Reading this book helps me to help ‘my’ kids develop their body movements better. Even if it’s only an hour and a half a week I coach them. Baby steps count too ;)

(about the number in the title)

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