Gill Connell has been involved in education in New Zealand for almost 30 years. She is a primary trained teacher (TTC. ATCL) and very experienced in early childhood.

She is presently working as a consultant in her own educational business where she regularly runs professional development courses and in-service workshops for early childhood and primary teachers, parents and caregivers talking about the importance of movement and learning. She is the NZ teacher trainer for Perceptual Motor Programming – a movement programme many schools in New Zealand are implementing.
She is also invited to speak on a regular basis at Colleges of Educations, Kindergarten Associations, SPELD, Parent Centres and many other organizations, throughout New Zealand, in the Pacific Islands and recently in Europe. ... read more >>

This post concludes our series of activities with kids by SPARC.

What are some of the important things for parents to know about getting children active?
Getting children active is incredibly important for brain development. Activity is not only beneficial physically for children, but is also helps them to develop intellectually, emotionally and socially. For children, getting active helps them to become healthy, happy and confident people.

Our modern lifestyle means we are less likely to be active. For example children are carried more often and spend much more time in cars, backpacks, pushchairs and supermarket trolleys. So we need to encourage our children to be more active – right from the start. ... read more >>

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 >>

What makes music and dance important?
From birth children really respond to music and movement. For example we use it to calm a baby who is tired or upset, or we can use it to energise children at a party.

Music and dance is a great medium for moving and learning because most children love music and dance. It helps to build an awareness of emotions and is a great form of physical and emotional expression.

For young children music and singing are great for language development and speech and memory skills because of the repetition. We know that children's brains develop very fast in early childhood and music and movement helps make connections between different parts of the brain.

How does music and dance help with physical activity and movement? ... read more >>

ACTIVE FUN AT HOME

Why is being active so important for children?
Getting your children active helps them develop intellectually, emotionally, socially and spiritually – as well as physically.

Physical activity helps children to be happy, healthy and confident. It also builds the foundations for learning and communicating.

In addition, physical activity encourages a life-long interest in being physically active.

Why aren't children getting as many opportunities these days to be active?
We use the car and pushchairs much more than we used to, we don't play outside as much and spend more time in front of the TV or computer. This means our children aren't getting enough opportunity to develop something called fundamental movement skills.

What are fundamental movement skills?
There are three categories of movement skills: ... 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 >>

Why is active movement in water important for children?
Active movement stimulates the senses and helps develop a life-long interest in being physically active.

Active movement in water helps develop readiness for children to learn to swim. Water plays a big part in our lifestyle in New Zealand so learning to swim is really important.

Active movement in water also helps us to teach children safety around water.

How does water make a difference that helps in development?
Water provides a multi-sensory experience – it’s wet, smooth, silent. The sensation of water pressure and buoyancy is different from the air – so it’s a different experience. Different experiences ensure maximum stimulation of the brain which enhances the growth of mind, body and soul. ... read more >>

What are locomotor skills and why are they important?
Locomotor skills include activities like walking, running, jumping, hopping and skipping – it involves moving the body from one location to another.

Locomotor skills are important as they help children to build their confidence and competence – both in sport and in relation to their general feelings about their body.
Basic locomotor skills also allow children to master other sports and activities.

Why are we seeing a decline in these sorts of skills?
Children learn when they practice or experience something for themselves, and we as parents are not building in enough opportunities for our kids to explore and practice locomotor skills. We’re also not letting our children take as many risks as we did in previous generations.

What things can you do to help children develop locomotor skills? ... read more >>

Why is being active from an early age so important?
Being active is important for healthy brain development. It also discourages health problems like diabetes and obesity.

Being active is not only beneficial physically it also helps children to develop intellectually, emotionally and socially so they are healthy, happy and confident.

How does being active contribute to brain development?
Early experiences fine-tune brain structures – they directly affect how we are hardwired.

Does this development come naturally?
Yes and no. Technology (such as television and computers) plays a big part in our lives so we tend to move less and generally we’re less active than our parents and grandparents were. ... read more >>

Since becoming a dad and working on DIYFather.com I have learnt a lot about babies, parenting and sleep deprivation. Most of it was all new to me and at times it seemed a bit overwhelming to try and do "the right thing" (whatever that may be).

Fortunately very early on we got in contact with a government agency called SPARC who have put together a lot of material about helping children under five develop their fundamental movement skills. ... read more >>