Celebrate Your Child’s Health and Wellness Goals during Every Kid Healthy Week
Every Kid Healthy Week is an official event observed and recognized by the National Health Observances in honor of celebrating achievements in health and wellness in the last week of April from April 20th to 24th. It is organized by Action for Healthy Kids and encourages educational institutions to participate in it.
As the likelihood of schools remaining closed and children spending more time at home in quarantine, parents are encouraged to continue the tradition of celebrating it at home. This week is all about supporting healthy eating habits and the importance of nutrition as well as engaging children in healthy activity and promoting overall wellness at home.
The schedule for the week in 2020 is the following:
- April 20th: Mindfulness Monday
- April 21st: Nutrition and Healthy Eating
- April 22nd:Wellness Wednesday
- April 23rd:Thoughtful Thursday
- April 24th: Fitness Friday
Here are some ways you can help your children celebrate the week at home for those who are either teaching online or parents home-schooling (hang in there parents and don’t forget to thank your teachers).
Mindfulness
The first day is meant to help children connect to their inner thoughts and feelings by taking part in mindfulness activities. Teaching children mindfulness is extremely useful and has many benefits for them for the years to come.
It allows them to be aware of their surroundings and their mental health and encourages them to practice healthy habits and ways of coping. These activities can be fun and you can tailor them to the needs and interests of your children.
Activities: Yoga for children can be as simple as taking a space and asking them to focus on their breath with their eyes closed followed by trying poses like The Wonder Woman and The Superman.
You can also blow bubbles which teaches them to inhale and exhale and focus on what they’re feeling.
Nutrition and Healthy Eating
Ideally, this would’ve taken place in the school cafeteria but at home you can do this right in your kitchen. Teaching children about being aware of the kind of food they eat and the importance of nutrition is important. It’s also important to show them how to practice healthy eating.
Activities: Allow your children to help you in making a healthy and wholesome breakfast together as a family. Assign them age appropriate tasks and make sure you practice kitchen safety as well!
This can be followed by making healthy snacks for the rest of the day and a taste- test where you introduce either a new food if possible or a new recipe made a healthier way.
Wellness Wednesday
This day is about learning about sustainability and practicing kindness towards Earth. Talk to your children about the importance of reducing waste and recycling. Ask them ways you can practice recycling at home.
Use arts and craft activities to recycle paper at home and other things you can find easily such as mason jars etc.
Thoughtful Thursday
Talking to your children about building, maintaining and cultivating healthy boundaries in friendships is part of encouraging empathy and social learning. It’s important to talk about emotional health with children at all stages of their life.
Activities: Ask your children to write a letter to someone they admire and the qualities they like in that person. This can be a teacher or a friend at school.
Fitness Friday
The last day is about promoting exercise and play with children to help them get in the habit of productive physical activity. You can take this as an opportunity to spend more time together as a family. Another important part of physical health are regular checkups with a pediatrician to teach children to pursue professional help when they experience health concerns.
The pediatric specialists at Natomas Family Practice provide exceptional services in Sacramento including women’s health, immunization, senior care etc.


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