Have you ever tried to think of a fun way to motivate your family to become more physically active? I’d like to invite you to join Primrose Schools in promoting physical activity by encouraging your family to have a family dance night! Dancing is a fun, easy way to incorporate lively physical activity into your family’s routine while enjoying quality time together. Not only is dance an entertaining way for children to keep their hearts healthy, but it is also a creative form of self-expression that builds self-confidence and promotes their development as happy, fit and healthy individuals.
lisa
Primrose Schools has launched a national campaign spotlighting dance as a wonderful way to encourage physical activity and healthy lifestyle choices. In partnership with Children’s Miracle Network, we will host a Family Dance-off competition, asking parents nationwide to submit 30-second home videos of their family’s best dance moves. The winning family will receive the grand prize of $5,000 and a $30,000 donation to their local Children’s Miracle Network hospital. The two runners-up will receive a Wii Fit Bundle and each weekly finalist will be awarded a Flip Video Camcorder.
I worked with Dr. Steve Sanders, an early childhood fitness expert and member of the Primrose Education Advisory Board, to offer you these five easy steps that will help your family begin thinking about how to start moving and dancing:
Step 1: Select appropriate music. Age-appropriate lyrics are important, but also look for music with an eight-count beat that isn’t too fast or too slow so children can successfully develop movements in time with the music.
Step 2: Create a dance routine with your child. Together, decide how your dance will begin, what movements will go in the middle, and how it will end. Children naturally respond to music with movement, which they can then turn into a dance. They love to pretend and respond readily to suggestions to “be” the wind moving in the trees or even a dog searching for a place to bury a bone. It doesn’t take a lot of encouragement to set their imaginations in motion.
Dance is also a means of expressing how music makes you feel, so listening to a piece of music first and talking about it is an excellent way to get started. If you should happen to get stuck, try adding in some steps from well known dances, such as the Chicken Dance, Macarena, Electric Slide, Hokey Pokey, Bunny Hop, Twist and other simple line dances.
Step 3: Focus on developing your child’s key motor skills. Freestyle dancing raises your heart rate and can benefit your child’s motor and coordination development at the same time. Dancing will enable them to practice fundamental skills like jumping, landing, leaping, sliding, galloping, moving forward and backwards, and learning how to imitate moves. Here are a few basic dance concepts:
- Flow: Focus on the transition between states, moving from one position to another. Combine several traveling steps together, as well as some movements like stretching or bending while standing still. The idea is to connect the steps as smoothly as you can.
- Force: Include strong and light force in your movement or steps. Show your child how to be strong like a stomping elephant or soft like a ballerina gliding across the stage.
- Speed: Does the music prompt you to move slowly or quickly? Varying the speed is one way dancers express themselves.
- Formation: Each family member can dance independently or with a partner. An example of partnering would be to have your child mirror your movements or vice versa.
Step 4: Check your child’s heart rate. Teach your child to connect physical activity with maintaining a healthy heart by measuring his or her heart rate. Show your child how to feel and count his or her heart beats.
- Take your child’s resting heart rate before dancing, and then check it again after you’ve been boogying down so you can measure the increase.
- After dancing, count the number of heart beats in 15 seconds. Multiply that number by four to calculate heart rate.
- A resting heart rate should be 60 to140 beats per minute for children between the ages of one and 10. Their heart rate should be between 120-150 beats per minute when they are physically active.
Step 5: Enter Primrose Schools’ Family Dance-off competition. Be sure to film your family’s best moves and upload your video to www.FamilyDanceOff.com between Feb. 1 and March 19 for a chance to win! From March 22-26, we will feature the weekly finalists on the site and visitors will be able to vote for their favorite. The grand prize winner and two runners-up will be selected on March 31. Please visit the Web site for the official game rules and contest details.
