Haktive

Last week I listened to an interesting interview with my daughter from Tim Peake who spoke about many things in such a positive and engaging way, about space, his fitness, how you can become an astronaut and about his isolation training. But what really resonated with me was remembering to take little breaks while working and concentrating. It occurred to me that there are so many on-line learning opportunities for children and work set by school on-line, that they are looking at screens far more than we would probably choose for them to. But do we also encourage those short breaks in between tasks? It is suggested that 'short, frequent breaks are better than less frequent longer breaks’ for children and adults alike when looking at a screen or doing computer work. The looking away from the screen is the easy part for children but the breaks where they just need to do something different just for a few minutes to then come back, focus and re-engage in the activity they are trying to get done, are really important. These brain gym activities are just starting points, anything active will help get the body and brain going again.


Having some quick tasks up your sleeve are helpful. Try these:
1. Tap your head and rub your tummy. Change hands. Change the action.
2. One hand touches your nose while the other goes across your body and touches your ear. Switch over hands to the other ear. Repeat
3. Cross your arms in front of you then reach up and hold your ears. Do a squat, then switch over your hands to ears and do a squat. Repeat.
4. Stand up left hand to touch your right knee, then right hand touch your left knee. Then kick foot up behind you, left hand to right foot and right hand to left foot. Try and add a bounce and keep it going.
5. 1,2,3 - Take it in turns to say 1,2,3 and keep it going. Replace 1 with a clap, replace 2 with a jump. Then replace 3 with a squat. You can use anything you choose to replace the numbers but keep the sequence going.
6. Place your hands in front of you and touch finger tips together. Circle your thumbs around each other, both ways. Then the pointing/index fingers (thumbs now touching again), repeat with the middle finger, ring finger and little finger.


Some other links you might find interesting:
montessorinature.com/preschool-brain-gym/
You Tube - Mind Magic youtube.com/watch?v=jgNjmWLtmxE
https://parenting.firstcry.com/articles/10-best-brain-gym-exercises-kids/

Here are some other useful links for short activities:
Short sharp bursts of activity - dance for 1 song, 10 star jumps, 10 burpees, 10 pikachus, jog on spot for 30 seconds etc.
BBC Supermovers - bbc.co.uk/teach/supermovers
Go Noodle - gonoodle.com/
You tube - youtube.com/channel/UCTIwFB4ciFi5ZCIu-VlwaOg/videos - Little Sports, cartoon fitness videos
This week’s challenges (Week 8) are ready for you to download at www.Haktive.com/at-home
A variety of activities this week, but I particularly like the second one and whenever I teach the children they all enjoy it too.

I’d really appreciate your help in getting these ideas to other families so please do forward this newsletter. Thanks

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