Don’t leave the teaching to your schools when you can better teach your children how to be healthier right from home. Simply looking at school lunches or the physical education department in your school may give you some indication that they aren’t doing a ton to really teach your child how to live healthier. Plus, you can’t expect them to learn everything from someone else.
One way to make sure your children are learning about a healthy lifestyle is to lead one yourself. Quit smoking if you’re a smoker, cut down on alcohol consumption, and do what you can to take care of your body, inside and out. And then do these things:
Teach Them About Drugs And Alcohol
Teaching your children about drugs and alcohol from home allows you to show them things that schools may not be able to show them. Show them videos of the effects of drugs and alcohol, and even of smoking cigarettes. Make sure they understand that it isn’t all just fun and games.
You may even want to find out if a local treatment center may have a program where kids can come in and learn about all they’d have to go through if they became an addict. It’s not easy, and it’s not cheap.
Teach Them About Nutrition
Teaching your kids about nutrition is all about eating right, making them proper meals, and assisting them in understanding the benefits of a healthy diet. If they understand that vitamins and minerals can make them happier and healthier, and even live longer, they may be more likely to make their own wise eating choices.
Teach Them About Physical Activity
If you live a more sedentary lifestyle it’s more likely that your children will spend more time just sitting and playing video games instead of getting up and moving. You can teach them about fitness by helping them be more active. Ensure that the PT instructor of their school has a substantial amount of experience in physical education (probably by taking different courses in sport). Instructors like them can push kids to be physically active during their time in school. That way, kids will start to get more energy and will learn firsthand what fitness can do for them.
Make it fun. Play sports with them, take them swimming, and go for hikes as a family. If you have kids that are partial to video games get them a system and games that get them up and moving, like Wii Fit.
Teach Them About Sexual Health
Your school may not even have sex education, so it is extremely important to teach it at home. Kids are going to do it, sooner or later, so you want to make sure they are at least safe when they do. Teach them not only about the risks of pregnancy, but also about sexually transmitted diseases, as well as about things like rape. You shouldn’t be embarrassed to discuss these things with your children, they need to learn it from somewhere and if it isn’t from you, they may not learn the right things.