As the number of obese and overweight children in the United States continues to climb, fitness is a consideration that weighs heavily on the minds of parents, caretakers and teachers. The risk of health issues accompanying obesity among children provokes many fears that unless parents and children make significant changes in the lifestyles inhabited by our kids, diabetes, heart disease, and other weight related conditions have the potential to run rampant among American youth.

Importance of Fitness for Children

Although encouraging a healthy lifestyle, among children, that includes physical activity and fitness is vital to addressing issues associated with health problems and obesity, the addition of kid's fitness can also promote a lifelong love. Fitness not only encourages physical activity, keeping weight and accompanying conditions at bay, it also helps protect children from injuries that can occur when they are not accustomed to physical activity, movement and sports. Most injuries that plague children completing physical activities occur as a result of a lifestyle that lacks movement and activity that can provide balance, coordination and muscle memory necessary for a fit lifestyle.

Fitness and Physical Activity Benefits

Despite statistics praising physical activity among children as a weight management tool and method of decreasing injuries during activities and sports, fitness among children boasts a plethora of positive results and side effects. Strong bones and joints, stress relief, self confidence improvement and better academic concentration are just some of the other benefits touted by a child's active lifestyle, says HealthyChildren.org. In fact, according to the children's organization advocating a healthy lifestyle among youth, children who participate in sports, physical activities and other types of fitness positively affects the social lives of participants, offering a socially acceptable activity and associated peers.

Implementing Fitness and Physical Activity among Children

Understanding what types of activities and scheduling conflicts are preventing a child from obtaining a sufficient amount of physical activity and fitness can be a good way for parents to begin to understand how and where transformations can be made regarding kids' health. Tracking the amount of activity a child partakes can be as simple as gaining an awareness of their school schedules and whether they include physical education classes, recess and other ways children participate in fitness centered activities. Children who participate in a variety of physically demanding activities at school, such as extracurricular athletics or PE classes may not need as much prompting and extra fitness added to their day as a child who spends more time still and sedentary.

Set an Example

One of the best ways parents, caregivers and teachers can prompt children to compete in fitness activities and grasp a healthy lifestyle is by striving toward adopting a similar lifestyle that promotes and values physical activity. In fact, according to USA Today "No Time to Weight," children with even one obese parent have a 50 percent chance of being obese themselves. Children with two obese parents have an 80 percent chance of following in their footsteps, the article continues. Children who observe healthy lifestyles in their parents and role models have a better chance of adopting similar habits, highlighting the vital role parents play in influencing the fitness levels and physical activity of children.

Your child’s birthday party is always a special occasion for you!
One of the best places can be your own apartment or house. You can actually throw your birthday bash here. The best part is it doesn’t cost your anything. If you have the party in your apartment you can just move away a table in your living room and make it more spacious for kids to move around. This can be done especially when you have called for outside entertainments. If you have house, your basement can also be a good place to celebrate the party. If the weather permits you could use your backyard too.


If your residence is not very big or located out of the way or you don’t wish to have any work loads of cleaning up after the guests leave, there are a lot many options available.

If your budget is small you can hold the party at McDonald’s or there are other fast food restaurants. You can also hold it in pizzeria. Generally the expense of food (and many times even the birthday cake) is included in the cost of fast food that the joint will charge you.

You can hold a shindig in the park, when the whether is kind of warm. You might require permission from some parks. Hence you should first make sure by talking to the local parks department. Incase you are holding the party out doors; you need to have an alternative plan ready, if it rains on that particular day. You can choose a rain date. But it’s possible that some of your guests and your hired entertainment are not available on that date. Also take care that when the party is in the park its difficult for your guests to locate you, so keep your phone switched on and reachable, so that people can inform you on their arrival.

Your child’s school or day care is also a good venue to hold the party celebration during the week. It might cost you very less. For this you need to first talk to your child’s teacher or the day care owner or the principal. Check out the specific hours you will be allowed to have the party. Also ask for their policies for hiring outside entertainment. Many schools and day cares permit hiring of outside entertainment but some of them might now allow. Many schools may also not allow face painting or other things.

Another good idea is to hold the party in a community room. This can be done in a large apartment/condo building which has got a party room. You can also find out a church or a synagogue or local Y. You also have the American Legion Hall and Knights of Columbus that generally offers party spaces for hours by taking rent.

Some of the expensive ideas are a Chinese Buffet (they generally have an extra room to party or will enable you to book an extra room if you have good number of guest). A restaurant or catering hall is also some of the expensive places.