No matter the child, sports are great. The secret, however, is finding the sport that calls to them. You don’t want to pressure them into playing a sport that you love, but they hate. Get your kids out there and active from a young age. Even if they don’t fall get the passion for a sport like a star athlete has, you will have raised a healthy, well-rounded child. Sports increase their physical activity, their social and communication skills, their self-esteem, and provides a boost to their ability to focus. Sports are also a great, healthy way to wear out your full of energy kid.
If you live near the water, you have many amazing water sports available to teach your child. Here are the top five of them:
- Swimming
Every parent should teach their child to swim. Babies are naturally aquatic. Up until they are six months old they will automatically hold their breath underwater and their heartrate will slow. This means that babies have a better chance at survive being submerged longer than many adults can. Swimming for babies older than six months, however, becomes a life skill. 70% of the planet is water – it makes sense to learn how to swim!
- Surfing
Surfing is a sport that can take you around the world. There is a great culture around surfing. Children can learn to surf from a very young age, and many find it a lot of fun, and it is a great workout. Every surfer starts with a boogie board and rides the whitewater that hits the beach. Surfing is a very liberating sport, and nowadays you don’t even need to live next to the best waves in the world. Jetsurfny makes motorized surfboards, giving you the ability to surf anywhere, anytime.
- Sailing
The ultimate sport that is at the end of teaching your child to sail is racing, but as with every sport, you should only push a kid to learn a sport if your child finds it fun. If you have a boat, this one is easy – simply teach your children the ropes whenever you are on the water.
- Waterski/wakeboarding
This is a water sport that you can do at your cottage. It’s great fun – all you need are waterskis or a wakeboard (the snowboard of the water skiing world) and a boat. Children learning will delight in trying to stand up, and if you have siblings or friends, they will likely have a competition with one another on who can do it first.
Water sports are a lot of fun. They are also very physically demanding. Make sure that you always have a life jacket on for younger children, and keep the lifejacket on unless it is for swimming or surfing in teens and adults. There are high density foam bodysuits for extreme water sports, but most surfers know the dangers and safety measures of the ocean better than the average swimmer anyway. The water is a fun place to be. Teach your children from an early age to respect it, and let them love it.
