🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• ❤️ Cardiovascular Health — Vigorous physical activity that elevates heart rate and quickens breathing builds cardiovascular fitness — and active preschoolers develop not just physical health but the energy, sleep quality, and mood that support learning.
• 💪 Strength Building — Age-appropriate strength challenges — climbing, pushing, carrying, and holding body weight — build the muscle development that children need for endurance, injury resistance, and the hand strength that fine motor tasks require.
• 😌 Emotional Regulation — Physical activity is one of the most effective emotional regulation tools available to preschoolers — vigorous movement releases stress hormones and resets the nervous system for calm, focused engagement with other tasks.
• 🎵 Rhythm & Timing — Moving to a beat, keeping rhythm in marching or clapping, and coordinating movement to music develops the temporal processing that underlies both musical ability and the phonological timing needed for reading.

Now that the new year has officially started, many people start to make resolutions and set goals around their health. Don’t leave your children’s health out of this equation either. With video games, TV, and computers, it’s becoming harder to keep kids interested in fitness. With these ten fitness tips for a healthy preschooler, you can kick off a fit new year!

The first step for a healthy preschooler is your involvement. It’s not enough to tell your child to go and be active or expect them to do a fitness video alone. Preschoolers love for mom, dad, grandparents, or caregivers to get in on the action too. When you provide a positive example about health, fitness, and nutrition, your preschooler is likely to take more interest.

Find fitness in everyday activities. You don’t always have to go out of your way to come up with an exercise routine or structured activity to get your child in the fitness groove. Gardening, sweeping, cleaning, and picking up toys can all be turned into fitness opportunities.

Take a daily walk. Get outside when the weather is nice, and brave the cold for even a short while if it’s chilly. The health benefits of walking every day are significant. It’s also an excellent time to reconnect and enjoy nature.

Sign your child up for a class. Whether it’s swimming, gymnastics, yoga, or dance, there are a lot of fun preschool classes available that provide age-appropriate fitness opportunities.

Develop your own fitness rituals. Maybe you and your preschooler will want to start the day with a couple of fun stretches, or perhaps some yoga poses at the end of the day will provide a great way to wind down. Or try a crazy, high-energy dance in the middle of the day when energy starts to dip!

Rent or purchase fitness videos. There are so many videos and DVDs now that focus on raising healthy preschoolers, featuring all sorts of fun characters. Visit the Preschool Fitness Videos and DVDs page for ideas!

Purchase a game that promotes movement. There are a variety of fun games that you and your preschooler can do together that get them up and moving. Try Hullabaloo or Elefun, for example.

Tap your preschooler’s imagination for a fun activity. They will love the opportunity to create their own obstacle course, play a pony race game, or be the leader in a lively game of Simon Says. With just a small amount of direction, your preschooler can come up with a fun new game!

Make it fun! One of the best ways to reach your goal of having a healthy preschooler is to make whatever activities you do fun! If they aren’t having a good time, then it’s likely time to try a new activity. Don’t give up if their interest drops off. If your preschooler has a short attention span, then incorporate small five or ten minute activities throughout the day, rather than trying to get them to participate in a 20 minute activity all at one time.

Take the Preschooler Healthy Eating Challenge. Just follow along with our nutrition writer’s healthy eating challenge each week to build great food habits for!

I'm Wendy Michaels, the Preschool Fitness writer for PreschoolRock.com. With an active preschooler of my own, I know how easy it is to include exercise and healthy habits into a preschooler's daily activities. I'd love to hear your ideas for promoting fitness with your own preschooler. Please contact me with any suggestions, ideas or questions.