During my
observations in the past two weeks I have talked with the program director of
the Montessori Leaning Center in our town.
I have previously spoken with the director about my research topic of
child obesity and the areas that I believe are of most concern.
When
speaking with Emily the director, we discussed in detail her concerns for the
quality of the food that is provided to their center. She explained that their center has always
had their meals catered. When the center
first opened the owners were focused on finding a caterer that could provide
them with the lowest food cost. After a
few months and many complaints later the owners decided to look for a new
caterer that provided a better quality of food, providing the children with
fresh fruit and vegetable and healthier main course options.
When
observing in the preschool classroom the teacher Sarah mentioned that the
teachers within the center we working on their summer curriculum and
nutrition/healthy eating was a focus for the first couple weeks of the
summer. I was very encouraged to hear
that the teachers were focusing on this type of education within their
curriculum. Sara also mentioned that
they will be having a visit from a food program representative along with a
member of the health department to give a presentation on the importance of
healthy eating along with physical activity.
While
visiting a local school district I spoke with a teacher, Susan who works
directly with children with special needs.
I have known Susan for several years and while discussing my educational
goals I mentioned that I was writing a research paper on child obesity. I asked her what were her thoughts are about
this topic and what does she think is an area that is in the most need for
advocacy. To my surprise she said that physical
education is an area that really needs a great deal of support and focus to
better educate children, families and even school districts regarding the importance of keeping physical education within our
schools curriculum requirements for our state.
In her district PE is not an everyday option – she even explained that
in some states PE is not in the daily curriculum. I found this to be very interesting that PE
is an optional part of curriculum.
Physical activity is very important to promoting a healthy lifestyle and
if our children are not seeing this first had in their daily school lives where
are they going to learn it? Home is not
always an educational option for healthy living nor physical activity. This was great insight to learn as well as an area to add to my research.
During one
of my observation visits this past week I observed 2 children leaving the
center and walking over to a local gymnastics place that is located directly
across the parking lot from the center in which I am observing. I asked the director of the center where the
children were going. She explained that
their center has partnered with this local gymnastics center to incorporate
extra physical fitness into their daily curriculum to promote healthy
lifestyles and physical activity. I was
quite impressed. The center has a list
of three different preschool classrooms that rotate to participate in group
lessons and activities throughout the week.
The director explained that the fee for this extra activity is included
into their tuition at no extra cost. I
found this to be a great perk as well as an advantage to this child care
center.
Once customary for children at nearly every grade level, gym class, in recent years, has been steadily scaled back. And as gym classes get elbowed out of the curriculum in favor of other subjects, recess, in many school districts, is also in jeopardy. Raising a physically active child calls for continual support and encouragement from the family. Another valuable method for encouraging physical activity at home is limiting a child's sedentary leisure activities.
ReplyDeleteI think that you have touched on a very important topic. The critical time for adoption of physical activity behaviors is during adolescence. And I believe that a sound physical education program, coupled with nutritional guidance, can help maintain caloric balance and overall health in young children. This should make for a good advocacy plan. Good luck!
If you think about it, when we were children being active was our only form of recreation. We went outside to play and stayed there all day. Times have changed and technology has killed children's need for the outdoors and their imaginations. The schools can partner with families and take an active role in educating them about the importance of physical activity. I did a paper on this topic once and was surprised to find research that noted organized sports have also taken a part in recreational play. Children that are physically active are no longer playing baseball or tag with their friends, they are in organized club sports somewhere. We can reach out to families and encourage limits on television, computer and video time and explain why it is so important. We can encourage them to become more active and if we can reach them in the younger years they can begin to build healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteTeachers can be proactive also. In my classroom we do yoga every day in large group. It is all very basic movements that I do with the children and they absolutely love it. I can make copies of the movements and send them to parents to encourage this as a family activity.
We exercise daily in our day care...and the kids really look forward to it. They have even taken our exercises home to share with their families. Yoga with children sounds like a lot of fun. Sending copies of the movements home with the families is a great way to help encourage this form of physical activity within the family.
DeleteI think IL is one of the only states that require PE everyday for all 12 years of a child's schooling. Although it is required, because of AYP, PE teachers have to incorporate reading and math in their curriculum (which is so stupid) because we are in such a crisis in this country requiring obesity you would think we should allow our children 45 min. - 1 hr/day to 'get physically' fit without worrying about reading or math.
ReplyDeleteThe center I am observing at has a well aware program that is incorporated in all the classrooms. The well aware program involves the classrooms to incorporate movement in the class. Rather then just having the playground time that is designated for each room, they have lessons that are based around movement. This movement can be creating an obstacle course in the classroom, yoga etc. They also have a gymnastics program called "gym stars" that comes to the center once a week. This program is for parents to sign their children up for, so not every child does it. Physical activity is so important for children and need it more then just once a day (P.E.)
ReplyDelete