Children’s interests and physical activity

I am just 23 years old, but still I can see a dramatically change in what kind of interests children have. When I was a child I played with Barbie dolls until an age of 10-11 years, I was interested in building boats so I could send them down the river, all the children in the neighborhood played together and we never got bored. Today I get the impression that the children are bored all the time, they have not got the creativity to find up games they can play. I think it is because many kids play to much computer games. I have some nephews that also are very interested in computer games, but they are not allowed to play all day long, so when they don’t have the computer they very easily get bored. I can also see this tendency in school.

A negative effect of this is obesity. We can see children getting bigger and bigger and it’s a sad side effect of increased use of computer and other static activities. From autumn 2009 every 5-7.class in Norwegian elementary school had to introduce regularly physical activity. They have also made a resource site with good activities to do in school. I think this is a good requirement, because many children like to have more physical activity in school and it is important for their health. “Nasjonalforeningen for folkehelse” in Norway have a competition “jump for your heart” (Hopp for hjertet) for 4. – 7.class, that is about jump rope, and the class that jumps the most win good prizes. So the government and organizations do a lot for increase children’s physical activity. Very good! But I think it’s also important for the teacher to inform about what a healthy lifestyle means, and focus on the importance of it.

Here’s a link to the resource site.
And a movie that shows health benefits of physical activity. (Norwegian)