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Reading, writing and staying healthy

boy on slide

These 10 simple tips show you how to support your child’s reading and writing while doing things to look after their health.

  1. Be a role model – When it comes to reading, writing, and exercising, make sure you lead by example. If your child sees you exercising, writing or reading, they are more likely to copy your healthy habits.
  2. Act it out – Encourage your child to be active by making up scenes from your favourite stories.
  3. Track your steps – Many phones can keep count of the number of steps you do in a day. When you’re out and about with your child, start a competition to see if you can beat the number of steps you did together the day before.
  4. Spend time outdoors - Research shows that spending time outside during daylight hours has a significant positive impact on children's physical and mental health, it even supports the development of their vision.
  5. Choose books about your child’s favourite physical activity – Whether your little one is into football, ballet, swimming or gymnastics, there are plenty of stories out there about their favourite sporting hobbies.
  6. Get active - Children need to develop strength and coordination in their core and arm muscles before they develop the fine motor skills they need for writing. So playing catch, climbing, scooting, swinging and skipping are all activities which will help your child learn to write, as well as keeping them fit and healthy.
  7. YouTube – There are lots of videos on YouTube that can show your child how to make some tasty meals. Watch them together and pause to write out the recipe.
  8. Become a master chef – Once you and your child have found a healthy recipe you like, encourage them to write it down in a personal recipe book. You could take pictures of your finished meals to remind yourselves for next time.
  9. Host a healthy picnic – Get outside and hold a healthy picnic for your family and friends. Make sure you bring plenty of books to read and games to play outside.
  10. Include health and reading into your bedtime routine – Make time for your child to have a bath, brush their teeth and read a story together. Make it fun by adding songs to bathtime or silly voices to story time.

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