Children today are more likely than ever before to become obese. Dealing with the negative effects of this at such a young age can affect them for their entire life. Since childhood obesity is a widespread issue, many parents want to enroll their children in sports activities to stay active while having fun and making friends.

Here’s a list of six youth sports activities that will get your children moving and keep them active.

Flag Football

Flag football is one of the best youth sports because it’s non-contact. It means that no players on the other team can hit your child or cause them physical harm. This makes it a great option for kids who are just learning how to play sports and offers an opportunity to get more comfortable being active in front of others.

Running flag football plays can even teach your kids how to be a part of a team and develop some communication skills. It becomes the perfect game for children who aren’t interested in playing on conventional teams. Flag football offers similar benefits to traditional tackle football.

The benefits of team sports include learning how to work together with others and can contribute to a child’s mental health and overall wellbeing.

Soccer

Soccer is a great sport to introduce to young children because it combines teamwork with physical activity. It also teaches important skills like balance, coordination, endurance, and agility.  Some studies have shown that soccer encourages higher fitness levels than other childhood sports such as basketball or baseball.

As a bonus, research has found that playing soccer can improve academic performance in math and science among high school students who participate in the sport during their childhood years. Once a male dominated sport, soccer programs for girls have greatly expanded to present great opportunities for female players.

Track & Field/ Cross Country Running

Running is one of the most popular sports in the world and for a good reason. Running provides great cardiovascular conditioning while also strengthening your leg muscles. It helps with speed, endurance, coordination, balance, and weight loss.

Track & Field also has social benefits, like building bonds with teammates or classmates through training sessions. You can start running at any age, but it is recommendable that children begin by walking, then progress to jogging before finally running.

Swimming

Swimming is great for general health and fitness. It is because it works out every muscle in the body while providing excellent cardiovascular conditioning.  It improves your child’s endurance without putting too much stress on their joints or bones. This makes swimming a good option for younger children who are still growing.

The best part about swimming is you can start at any age. But it is recommendable that you learn the basic moves like how to float before continuing to more advanced techniques like diving or crawling underwater.

Martial Arts

Martial arts are one of the best ways to turn your child’s interest in martial arts films, comic books, and video games into something they can participate in. Martial arts teach kids discipline without sacrificing too much fun.

The study has shown that learning how to fight better reduces bullying. It also teaches important social skills such as respect, concentration, and time management. Having classes or clubs for them will also give them some more friends who share similar interests.

Tae Kwon Do is probably the best martial art for children. This is because it focuses on a light-hearted atmosphere without heavy contact like boxing would require. It allows kids and adults to come together on an equal playing field while improving their focus, concentration, and coordination.

Dance

All children enjoy dancing, but dance can also be a great way to get more active. There are many types of dances from various cultures that will provide your child with various health benefits. The benefits include muscle toning, weight loss, coordination, and endurance.

Kids who take up dance usually find it easier to make friends. The classes often become social events where kids learn how to work together as a team.

Since dance is both fun and good exercise, it’s no wonder why so many kids today prefer to take up this activity rather than less healthy pursuits that benefit their overall well-being or education.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding has been the passion of many kids for decades. It’s easy for boys and girls to started right in their own driveways. They can progress to hitting the local skate park with friends or to meet new ones.

The thrill of learning new tricks, the sense of community, and the freedom of expression that skateboarding offers make it more than just a sport—it becomes a lifestyle for many. From mastering the basics to perfecting advanced maneuvers, skateboarding nurtures creativity, resilience, and camaraderie among its enthusiasts.

Closing Remarks

These six sports activities will not only keep your kids active, but they’ll also have so much fun while exercising with others, thus improving their social lives.  Exercise is also beneficial for any child to help boost their mood and maintain positive attitude.  These types of youth sports are healthy for children because they teach them discipline while strengthening their bonding.

Additional Reads:

• Got a gamer in the house that needs more exercise? Learn how you can use technology to gamify fitness.
• Read how the game of golf is providing a positive influence on growth and mental health for children.

Here are so many aspects to ensuring social media safety, no matter what your age.  It can be a bit overwhelming.  One might say that people just need to use own common sense to stay safe.  Yet, there are plenty of cases when even the most intelligent people are not thinking clearly while posting or commenting online.

Hopefully these social media safety tips will help!   Rather discuss the various safety tips for each individual social media platform, here are general concepts explained in depth to help kids stay safe. Whether it’s Tik Tok, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, Discord or others, we hope these tips will help you develop your own common sense.

Contents: In this article, we’ll explore these Social Media Tips for Kids.

1. Social Media Manners – How social media users should one behave while connecting with others on social media.
2. To Post or Not to Post – This is the question that needs to be answered every time you are about to post a comment or picture online.
3. Privacy Settings – Every social media platform has privacy settings. Knowing the “why” behind privacy settings applies for all of them.
4. What Would the ‘Future You’ Post Online? – What you post now may follow you for the rest of your life.
5. Can Social Media Make You Sad? – Being on media can be harmful to your mental health if you don’t learn to manage it.
6. Ghosts on Social Media – What is posted online has the potential to stay online forever, even if you try to deleted it.

Learning how to control what you do today will help you avoid a world of trouble in the future.  When it come to social media, even adults need safety tips on the apps they use. So, let’s get started by diving deep into these tips!

1. Social Media Manners

For many, the idea of “good manners” conjures up images of someone wagging a finger at you. Etiquette is simply being thoughtful of others. Good manners on social media means taking a moment to think before you hit that post icon.

It means looking at what you do online as if you are someone else and realizing how your actions and words look to others.

Manners are not about being fake or sucking up. Manners are about adding to the online world without shutting people down and cutting off communication.

It also is about protecting YOU.

While media manners are always evolving as online behavior and options arise, these are basic guidelines to help you and your followers get along and benefit from the amazing methods of communications available today:

• Never post a picture of someone else without permission. Not only is this rude, it is spreading another person’s image or personal information (for example, that they were at a party in your backyard on a certain date). Always get permission and if the person says no, respect his or her decision.

• Further to the first rule – NEVER tag a person without their consent.

• Never post when you are angry. To do so makes you look stupid or thoughtless. It also can inflict damage on people because your view may not take into consideration of the circumstances from that person’s point of view. When another person’s actions bother you, the better response is to talk to that person face-to-face or in a private message. You will probably find that you and the person who made you angry are not as different or as conflicted as you think.

Ever heard of the 24 hour rule? While it may make you feel better to write down your initial feelings when you are angry, don’t post your thoughts until you sleep on it. Take some time to cool off. This way, you won’t communicate something in the heat of the moment that you will regret later.

• If you change your relationship status, let any other involved person know first. You and Rahim or Rachel are on the outs. But before you make a post in front of the whole world, contact Rahim or Rachel and explain your thoughts. Who knows? You might even repair any damage from the spat before it becomes locked in time forever on the Internet.

• Be careful with CAPS! There are times when choice words emphasized by capital letters helps make your point. To put a whole statement in caps implies that you are yelling with nothing standing out. If everything is in caps, nothing is emphasized.

• When video chatting or posting a video, make sure that there is nothing creepy or rude behind you. Imagine someone chatting with you in front of a poster that a bit raunchy or somewhat violent looking. Such creepy images not only make what you say seem ridiculous, they will come back to haunt you when you apply for a job or want to make new friends.

Kids can also make their own list of good manners and share with your friends. The more we learn to respect the thoughts of other people, the better we can make life online rewarding and safe for all.

2. To Post or Not to Post on Social Media

Wow! You learned how to do the front crawl, earned $63 dollars with your lemonade stand and your whole family spent a week at a resort all the way across the country. And every day as your thumb hovers over your phone, you need to ask yourself one question: “Should I post this?”

As you think about that great picture of your sister with cotton candy all over her face, remember one of the basic rules of social media posting: Do not post a picture of anybody without that person’s permission. That includes your sister. Remember, too, that while you might get a laugh at an embarrassing picture of your brother and his bar-b-que sauce accident, posting that picture could be something you regret for years to come.

Another thought to go over as your fingers find the post icon is this: How many pictures do I post? The answer: As few as possible.

When you send picture after picture after picture after picture, people start to get annoyed. It can also seem a little desperate to load your page with dozens of images from the same place. Better to choose two or three cool shots to post and save the rest to show your close friends when you get home.

When typing text on social media, less is also better. Shorter posts are more likely to be read and less likely to contain detailed, personal details that could be used to harm you or your family.

It’s also more fun to show pictures and describe details in person. Then you can make sure that you only share with friends that are close enough to meet face-to-face. You can see the looks on their faces when you tell them about that awesome midway ride.

Considering that you will have more free time to post on social media, this is a good time to double check your privacy settings. It’s also a good time to go through your “friends” and truly think about who you really—really—know. When you go through the list, you could find people that are complete strangers to you.

Summer is a time when you have more freedom to explore and enjoy the real world. So grab that opportunity. Put down your phone and truly experience your summer vacation. What you do this summer can change how you feel, think and what you do for the rest of your life.

Yes, it’s great to have pictures and share the experience with your “friends.” What’s more important is the way reality can shape who you are. Take it easy on the social media and discover that the most important “posts” are the ones that you carry in your head and your heart and share by how you live.

3. Social Media Privacy Settings

New technology is incredibly exciting and fun. It’s amazing when you think that what you type on your computer in your room can be seen all around the world by anybody with a computer. But should it be seen by anyone with a computer?

Should the kid who’s been insulting you at the park know that you go there every Saturday morning to play basketball? Should the girl who calls you ugly get to see the new dress you bought? Probably not.

That’s why in this exciting time in human history, you need to think about your life as a valuable gift. You should think about that before every story you post. One easy way to make sure your life is shared only with those who like or love you is to use your social media privacy settings.

You probably know how to post, edit posts, change your profile picture and message friends. But do you know how to block strangers from looking you up on social media? If someone has started insulting you online, do you know how to block that person from posting on your page?

You can even block that person from sending you a private message or looking up your email address. Another smart setting to protect yourself from dangers online is to only accept friend requests from friends of friends. This helps limit who sees your profile.

Of course, there is a problem with this. You should talk with your friends about their settings. Better still, sit down with your friends (in real time, in real life) and play with the security settings. Show each other how the settings work and which ones you need to use.

When all of you keep control over who can see what you post online, all of you are safer. All major social media sites have safety and privacy settings. One fast way to learn about them is to Google the social platform’s name and “how to set privacy.”

Remember, talk to your friends and family about their settings. When everyone you share with has the same secure settings, all of you is safer.

For decades, kids have stuck signs on their doors that read: “Keep Out” and “Please Knock” and “Trespassers will be yelled at.” Think about your social media settings as signs on your online door. Don’t let just anyone walk in.

4. What Would the ‘Future You’ Post Online?

Adults tell you all the time: “Be careful what you post on social media! The Internet is forever!” Teachers say: “When you apply for college, the school might reject you because of all those pictures and mean posts.”

You hear over and over: “People who hire employees will read your history and you might not get the job you want.” You smile, nod, then roll your eyes. Who cares about what happens in five, ten or twenty years?

Someone just made a post that makes you angry—you feel that you must post some angry comment back. You take a picture of yourself drawing a rude image on a neighbor’s fence and snicker as you upload it to your page.

Stop. Take your fingers off your phone or keyboard. What you are told is true. The Internet saves everything you do today. People can see all your posts five, ten and even twenty years from now. People have lost jobs for postings made years before.

If you want to be, say, the boss of a company or a famous dancer or a doctor or mayor of a city, think about that when you post online. A firefighter’s job is to face danger and save lives—would someone like that make mean posts to a little kid?

Would a great engineer type hurtful words to a person who is different from him or her? Maybe you won’t become a great engineer if you can’t get into college because of mean comments posted when you were a kid.

Think about what you want to be. Imagine reaching your goals. You could dream of being an athlete, a pop star, a carpenter, a zoologist—whatever it is, think about how The Future You would act online. What would a nurse post when a person talks about being in pain?

What would a great world leader do when he or she sees someone being bullied online? If you act like the person you want to grow up to be, you’ll be on the road to being that person.

Now, look at your social media platforms.

Think about what a firefighter would say to the comments you see online. You have a long way to go before you can join a team of firefighters, but your journey can start when you act smart and strong online. It’s like having a firefighter writing your posts!

5. Can Social Media Make You Sad?

Are you feeling sad? Lonely? Even though you have hordes of friends on social media do you feel alone? The problem might be your social media. A study in the United Kingdom learned something you should think about.

Just one hour a day on your social media can make you feel worse about your life.

That wasn’t the only study. The University of Michigan found that the more young people use social media, the sadder they were. The Brown University of Public Health had the same findings. Other studies litter the Internet.

Why does time on social media make kids sad? No one knows for sure, but there are a few ideas:

Cyberbullying.

Not all kids are bullied online, but when they are the damage can be deep.

Thinking that everyone else has a better life.

Some people believe that when you see friends with exciting pictures and posts, you will think that they have more fun than you do. You’ll then feel bad about yourself. Jealousy is a tricky emotion, but it’s even more complicated when you think about online posts.

Remember, people upload posts that make them look good. They do not post pictures that show them looking bad. You could be jealous of a life that isn’t how it looks online.

Time spent online gives you less time in the real world.

The real world makes you move your body, which makes you feel better. That is partly because of “happy” chemicals your brain kicks out when you exercise.

Also, people feel an incredible amount of satisfaction when they reach a goal in the physical world (like making a lay-away or sitting with a friend who needs a buddy or discovering a great new view after hiking to the top of a hill or experiencing the thrill of sledding down that hill).

When you spend time online, you miss out on all the benefits of living in the real world. That can make you feel sad.

Before you say that these studies are just another way adults try to control what kids do, think about this: everything bad that happens to children because they spend time on social media happens to adults, too. You could be a positive role model to your parents. When your dad seems bummed out after a hard day on the job or your mom has problems with a project she’s working on, get them to take a break.

Let’s be honest here. When you are old and crouched over and rolling your eyes over what your grandchildren are doing, there will still be studies about why you are sad. Some of those studies will blame computers and whatever new technology is in your hands. One hundred years from now, the best advice will still be the same: Put down your phone and go tell someone.

Explore how you may be sad for other reasons.

6. Ghosts on Social Media

Are you afraid of ghosts? You should be if you post carelessly on social media. Consider this: You snap a funny shot of the school’s new soccer coach bending over. Your friends think it is hilarious. The next season, you try out for the team and discover that the coach isn’t excited about having you on the team.

She is concerned about your ability to show proper respect for the sport. You might be haunted by that old picture you posted the year before.

Or you go to a concert and post a comment about the fans dancing idiotically in front of the stage.

Months pass and you don’t think much about the posting… until you ask a bunch of kids at school what they’re doing that night. Someone says with a huff, “We’re going to go do some idiotic dancing,” before the group walk away from you.

Ah, yes, the ghost of social media past has come back to haunt you again.

You never know when a ghost will strike.

Some college applicants get haunted when colleges come across rude or even harassing behavior online.

Others find out when applying for a job that an old insult scares employers out of giving them a great job.

Most commonly, these ghosts jump out at you when what you say online doesn’t match what happened in reality.

It doesn’t even have to be your social media that gets you into trouble.

You tell a friend that you can’t hang out with her because you are studying when later another friend posts a picture of you and her shopping at the mall.

Hurt feelings are bad enough, but people may stop trusting you. Ghosts can really jump out of nowhere. They can haunt friendships for years to come.

The only way to prevent your social media from haunting you is to be smart. When you want to share an activity or a thought, remember that others may share your post and that it could be seen by people in the future.

No matter what apps you are using as a kid, there are enough scary forces in the world. Don’t let your social media history come back to haunt you.

Lawnmower parenting has been around for years but it picked up steam after an anonymous article was posted on a popular website for teachers. Since this trend is buzzing, it is something that needs to be talked about. It’s a parenting style that has made us appreciate helicopter parents and tiger moms even more.

Lawnmower parents are the overprotective parents who cannot stand to see their children struggle. Their intentions may be good but the consequences of such parenting are devastating. Before you follow this trend, you must understand that you are only setting up your kids for a lifetime of failures.

Some of us are already guilty of being lawnmowers. Just evaluate how you are raising your child whether it’s a toddler, preschooler, teen, or tween. You could be making your toddler wear a space suit whenever leaving home so they don’t catch germs, making your teen’s friends pass through a rigorous screening process to approve, or constantly checking their bedroom during the night to make sure they are sleeping. These are certainly signs that you love your child unconditionally but you could be preventing them from growing into independent and emotionally healthy adults.

Lawnmower parents are willing to intervene and mow down any obstacle that stands in the way of their child. This style of parenting, just like helicopter parenting, focuses on short-term goals. Such parents think “If I could make this thing easier for my child, why wouldn’t I do it?” When you are constantly removing obstacles from the life of your child, you are taking away their opportunities to learn problem-solving techniques and other skills.

Lawn-mowing parenting is not healthy for your children!

I would like to shed some light on ways lawnmower parenting hamper your children’s success:

• They won’t learn how to deal with life

The sting of rejection and the pain of failure could disappoint your child but it doesn’t mean you go above and beyond to solve every problem. If you do that, you are keeping them from developing emotional skills. They won’t be prepared for life after high school. They won’t be able to deal with conflict, loneliness, boredom, and anxiety on their own because they never got to experience these emotions before.

Early life stress actually expands the regions of the brain that help control resiliency. For example, if you console your child for receiving bad grades on paper, you are not benefiting them. You should instead be teaching a lesson that helps in character building and prepares them for the future.

• Their problem-solving skills will be zero

When you remove the problem before even your child knows it existed, how will they develop problem-solving skills? Scheduling meetings or calling your kid to ensure they wake up on time, etc. could make parents act more like personal concierges rather than authority figures. Imagine your child is in college and he doesn’t know how to get help. They must have the skills to figure out things without the help of parents. If your children don’t struggle, they will never learn and their character will never build.

• You are shattering their confidence

Removing obstacles from the life of your child means you are making them learn they can’t handle anything on their own. Your child will hence grow up with self-doubt and anxiety.  Their insecurities will make them feel they are incompetent.

• You are fostering poor mental health

Your parenting style doesn’t allow your kids to gain coping skills. It is understandable that you want them to be happy but ironically, you are sabotaging their long-term well-being. Providing access to online teen counseling can empower teens to develop resilience and independence while having professional support. You can’t take full responsibility for your child’s emotions by regulating how they feel.

The American Psychological Association Commission conducted a study on stress in America. Results revealed that the younger generation is more stressed out than the older generation. Millennials and Generation X reported a higher level of stress than the baby boomers. The study also revealed that when parents control the social sphere of their child, they hinder them from growing and developing essential social skills that help them during their adulthood.  Sheltered children miss out on so many learning opportunities. Lawnmower parenting actually makes your child maladapted to the real world, which can take a toll on their mental health.

Signs you are a lawnmower parent

If you are a lawnmower parent, you are simply removing your child’s discomfort in the short run rather than focusing on their needs in the long run. You must evaluate your parenting style if you want your child to grow into a healthy, confident, and adaptive adult. These are the signs that indicate you are a lawnmower parent:

• You do their laundry, clean their room, and even their dinner plates. In short, you are doing all their chores for them.
• Whenever your child comes home with a bad grade, you blame their teacher. You are even ready to talk to their teacher to cut them some slack or give extra time to complete a homework assignment.
• You don’t hesitate in stopping by their school to give them their forgotten belongings even though you are running late from work.
• You step into any situation that would make them uncomfortable. You are the one handling their business instead of letting them tackle the situation.
• You intervene in the sibling fights and even friend fights. Rather than letting your child figure out a way to solve the conflict, you remove the catalyst for them.
• You help them with their homework. Instead of letting them do the research, you come to their rescue every time.

You may not be doing all the above, it could even be one; but if you are handling a few or too many aspects of your child’s life, you must stop!

If lawnmower parenting is so bad, then using parental controls should be bad, too?

Since lawnmower parenting means you are being over-protective, some parents are arguing that using smartphone monitoring apps could mean the same. Well, not really. Whether it is built-in parental controls in apps that our kids use on a daily basis (like YouTube, Netflix etc.) or parenting apps, they are meant to protect our kids from harmful exposure. If you are putting screen-time limits on your child’s tablet or smartphone by using parental control device locking features, you are not keeping them from developing skills.

In fact, you are disciplining them and teaching them how to use technology in a healthy way. Likewise, with the location tracking feature and geo-fencing, you are making sure you know where your kid is without having to inquire about it. Since social media is full of vices such as cyberbullying, body shaming, online predators, catfishing, etc., to keep a check on your children’s mental health, parents have no choice but to monitor their conversations from time to time.

Supervising their digital lives isn’t a bad thing if you are teaching how to protect themselves from the lurking online dangers via monitoring app for parents or any other similar app like Qustodio. In fact, when you don’t set these boundaries, you are exposing your children to dangers that could leave a mark on their lives for a long time. With that being said, lawnmower parenting and using parental controls are not the same things.

How to tell the difference between helping and mowing things for your children?

I know, I know, you must be wondering how you can be sure you are actually helping your child and not being a lawnmower parent. No parent wants to see their child fail. They simply want to set their children up for success. Whenever you are stuck between helping and mowing, monitoring your child or trusting them, consider your child’s future. That will make it easier for you to decide. Back away and let your child gain experience by dealing with adverse situations. That, in fact, is the most loving thing you could do for them.

Teachers play a pivotal role in the life of children. Not only are they responsible for teaching them the foundations of a variety of topics and subjects, but they work to encourage, inspire and motivate kids daily. It’s all about prepping them for their future, which is made up of more than just a career.

With that said, teachers also need to be tuned in where the mental health of students is concerned. This means knowing what the signs of stress are in a child so that you can act quickly and appropriately. Here are some of the ways teachers can recognize the signs of stress in their students.

You See the Student Start to Withdraw

This particular sign can be one of the first red flags you notice and that’s a student pulling away or withdrawing from their friends and participating in class. This will be more noticeable in students who previously were very active and social in the classroom.

There Can be Physical Signs of Stress

Did you know that stress can also cause physical symptoms that make the child sick? This can include chronic headaches, stomach pain and discomfort and even muscles aches and pains. The fact is that stress does a number on a person’s immune system, leaving them more susceptible to catching illnesses.

Their Emotions are All Over the Place

A child who is stressed may also appear to have emotions that are all over the place. They can go from happy to sad in the snap of a finger and they may get over-emotional in situations that don’t warrant that kind of response. Some examples can include:

• The child is quick to lose their temper
• They yell when losing their temper
• They are overly anxious.
• They cry often
• They are irritable
• They don’t have a lot of patience
• They seem to have a hard time controlling and regulating their mood

Because their emotions are swaying from one extreme to the other, it can leave them feeling scared and frustrated, unsure of what they should do.

What Can be Done About It?

While it’s important to recognize the signs of stress, the emphasis should be on reducing and even eliminating it so that it never spirals out of control. Kids should be encouraged to use stress-busting techniques and tools such as learning meditation, which can be done throughout the day to calm themselves down.

Teachers also need to keep parents in the loop and let them know if there are any concerns. Speaking to the parents/caregivers can help shed light on what is happening. This also allows for everyone to be on the same page when it comes to how the stress will be addressed.

Recognizing the Signs of Stress in Students

Teaching kids how to deal with anxiety while they are young to avoid increased anxiety.  Over three-quarters of university students stating they hide mental health symptoms.

• 42% of university students experience a serious psychological issue for which they felt they needed professional help.
• The same percentage of students accessed counseling support last year, indicating that help is readily available at university.
• In January 2021, 63% of students said their mental health had worsened since the start of the academic year.
• 58% of students who struggle to manage their money say it affects their mental health negatively.

Understanding and managing anxiety is key to reducing issues related to stress as students move through their educational life.

Children, teens and young adults of any age need to learn how to:

• Understand and embrace anxiety triggers
• Learn Coping techniques and how to prepare for life in halls
• How to deal with financial pressures
• Managing academic pressures
• Discover the importance of a healthy lifestyle

Knowing what the signs of stress look like will help you to be a teacher that is tuned in and helps your students in every way possible. Just remember – the sooner you spot the red flags and act upon them, the better the outcome will be.

Teaching Kids to Mitigate Online Burnout