Congratulations: You have done a great job of helping your child to be able to enjoy physical fitness and excellent mobility. If your child is now running 4 kilometres each day she is doing what most other children should also be doing. But the sad fact is that many children under seven don’t, and often can’t, regularly run 4 kilometres because they were never given the environmental opportunity to do so. It is a sad fact also that many, many adults and teenagers have difficulty regularly running 4 kilometres; because they were never given the environmental opportunity to develop this skill. Your child is very fortunate if she is now, at under age six, at the point of beginning her next great adventure into the world of physical expression, unlike the many teenagers and adults who have to struggle to try to run as well as she can.
At this point in your child’s development you can begin to help her to decide her next step. She probably trusts you without reservation and has faith that you will always do what you think is best for her. And she is probably 100% right. Because she trusts and has faith in you she will probably be delighted to follow your lead into whatever new endeavour you choose. Consider what physical activity you think would be good for her that you enjoy doing, or have always wanted to do, and introduce her to it.
What follows is a brief description of how you might do that.
As well as continuing to run each day, other activities you might choose include:
Long distance running, ballet or other dancing, athletics including sprinting, broad jumps, cross-country, high jumps, hurdles, hiking, swimming, skating, life guarding, rock climbing, body surfing, surf board riding and gymnastics.
Magnificentchildren.love recommends that several of these activities, especially gymnastics, dancing, running and swimming be regular activities for your child but that gymnastics and running be considered as a very worthwhile activities for reasons mentioned previously. Running is simply easy to do at almost anytime. Ideally you will have been attending gymnastic activities since your child began walking, and she will now be very familiar with gym equipment and have seen older children and adults in action in the gym. In a well functioning gym she should be able to move on to higher levels of activity as she develops more gymnastics skills.
If you have not already done so then, when you have selected a suitable activity for your child and yourself (she will probably need you to be present to help her even if you don’t fully participate) do as follows:
Be enthusiastic about the particular activity, talk about it and get books and magazines about it.
Watch videos and live streaming about it. But be sure not to bore or tire your child with the subject. Keep viewing times brief, 5, 10 or 15 minute sessions are probably sufficient, depending on her level of interest.
Take her to live demonstrations of the activity and talk to the participants about how you and your child can get involved.
Teach your child about the activity by doing Magnificent Knowledge activities and by teaching her the meaning of the descriptive words used in the activity. Teach her to read related words using the Magnificent Reading method.
Arrange to commence the activity and do so.
Write or plan a program for the first day you do the new activity and think through what you might need to do in the next week, month and year. This is particularly important if you will be teaching all or most of the activity yourself.
When you start the activity try to do it every day or two but for only five, 10 or 15 minutes at a time and gradually extend the time out to 30 minutes or an hour if appropriate. Also be sure it is not too difficult for your child. She must succeed and not fail. If you attend classes that may be too long arrange to leave early. Always stop while your child is still enjoying the activity; never continue until she becomes tired, bored or frustrated.
Ensure your child will not be put into a competitive environment. She must never be made to feel like a loser. All the attending children will be winners if they only compete against themselves.
Your splendid support has probably and ideally brought her to her current high standard as a child who enjoys activity and not as a child who wants to defeat others or be defeated. A competitive environment can easily undermine the joy your child experiences doing physical activities. Like so many Olympic athletes the leaders, trainers or coaches in the activity you choose should have the view that personal development, personal best times, and personal achievements are the ideal goals for individuals involved in the activity. If the leaders, trainers or coaches believe that competition between children is OK then it is almost certainly better to find another leader, trainer or coach; and that might also mean changing to another activity.
Congratulations and best wishes, you are both magnificent.