ACTIVE FUN IN THE COMMUNITY - ORGANISED SPORT FOR CHILDREN

Why is organised sport for children so important?
Organised sport helps to get children out and about, and contributes to setting up lifelong enjoyment and participation in sport and recreation. Participating in organised sport creates helps to encourage children to start being active for life.

Getting children physically active is brilliant for their health, happiness and learning.

What are the benefits of organised sport for children?
There are many benefits for children who participate in organised sport and activity. There are the physical benefits – healthy bones, bodies and cardiovascular systems and reducing the risk of future health problems. Organised sport and activity also helps children to control their movement and coordination. ... read more >>

Why are fine motor skills important?
Fine motor skills are important because children need them for activities like writing, playing instruments and playing sport later in their lives.

Once a child can hold a pencil or cricket bat without having to think of "how" to hold it, they can then concentrate on what they are going to write, or how they are going to hit the ball with the bat. This is called automaticity, which is the ability to do something without thinking about it.

It's important to note that being active isn't just about doing full-on physical things and playing sport. It's anything and everything involved in moving your body and having body awareness. For example, in younger children it's about knowing where their fingers are and what they can do.

SPARC aims to develop the skills in our children to be active and healthy from a holistic perspective – so it's about food and lifestyle too. ... read more >>

I spent a couple of days in the Gold Coast recently at a wedding, my wife and I left Pyper with her grandparents that was really hard for us, and I was excited to get her as soon as possible, it looked like she had grown and was different then when we left her 5 days ago. ... read more >>

Hi,

I have just given up Full Time work and am currently on about 6 months Parential Leave to look after my 4 month old son. I have taken over my partners Maturnity leave for the balance of 12 months, she has been back at work now for two weeks.

These last couple of weeks have been great! Been at home most of the time but find I have sometimes up to a couple of hours a day when I can pop out for a while. ... read more >>

Being a father I find it easy to relate to my daughter because I haven’t had a son before and enjoy women in general!

I hope that I can be “special, strong, reliable and trusted male in her life”

What “we as fathers” can do is the following:

* Take an interest in her life, making sure I know the names of friends, interests etc

* Play sport with her and being physically active with her

* Don’t be too protective of her – this is something that is going to be hard – she is my little princess and I need to protect her from the world. I can hear the song “Macho Macho Man, Who wants to be a Macho Man??” hmm

* If you have a son don’t place more restrictions on her because of this.

* Being available for one-to-one conversations. Be the listener and not the talker.

* Do things together. Go to her sports events and other such activities

* Drive her to school etc ... read more >>