What do you want from a fitness program for yourself? Well, if you are like me, you want it to include stretching, cardio, strength conditioning, and maybe some exercises to improve balance. But most of all I want my fitness program to be fun! I like working out with others and challenging myself to improve, but most of all, I won’t do it unless it us fun! The same thing holds true for kids. They will do a work out if it is fun. They have less expectation for cardio, strength, flexibility, and balance and won’t notice whether an exercise program has any of those, but they will notice if they get to move their bodies in fun and challenging ways. Imagine an alphabet book that gets kids moving instead of sitting passively and listening. Imagine teaching letter sounds through activity. The new ABC Fitness alphabet book does just that. It includes a movement for every letter of the alphabet – a fun, and challenging movement that encourages children to explore how their bodies move. An added bonus is that children can work on learning letter sounds at the same time. The letter A for example is for airplane, soaring through the sky. The photo illustrates a child standing on one leg with his arms outstretched like airplane wings and his leg stretched back for the airplane’s fuselage and tail. The child is asked to copy the photo and balance. A challenge comes with making airplane sounds and rotating the arms like propellers while balancing. More benefits come from a class doing the exercises together as they challenge each other, or a child doing the movements with a parent. Parents and teachers can then model perseverance, effort, striving for improvement, being willing to try, and can benefit from the exercises themselves. With the rate of childhood obesity and diabetes soaring, this is a fun and easy way you can add movement into the day. This holiday season, consider giving someone you know the gift of fitness, and help get them on the road to a lifetime habit of exercise and health. www.alphabetworkout.com/products/abc-fitness-book
