Every week I spend my time with hundreds of amazing kids.  In our time together, we run, skip, jump and crawl.  We are frequently rolling on the floor, playing games, practicing yoga, throwing balls or knocking down cones.  We move in big ways, we move in tiny ways.  We move quickly and we move slowly.  We move controlling our bodies and we move in controlled chaos.  You never know what you will get in movement.  But the one thing that happens every week: the children are moving in utter joy.

That’s the thing about movement:  it is the first thing we humans do because everything else is built off that brain-body connection.  That is why children crave it and are fueled by it.  Their bodies desperately need it to strengthen their cognitive, social, emotional and behavioral skills.  The more they move as preschoolers, the stronger these skills in elementary school.  That is also why it is shear joy for them to move — we are hardwired to be physical as children so we develop our other skills properly.  If we didn’t love it, we wouldn’t do it.  And for young children big physical movement is a must.

When we were kids, we spent a great deal of time outside in free play.  We dragged and pushed heavy things across the yard to create our play spaces.  We hung upside down from monkey bars until we felt funny, because it was funny.  We spent hours swinging, biking, climbing and exploring.  As grownups, we can all reach into our back pockets for similar experiences and extensive play memories.

When we were moving and playing, a lot of really cool things were happening not just to our bodies, but to our brains as well.  Not just things that would improve our health but things that taught us how to be good friends, strong leaders or obedient followers and when necessary self-reliant or assertive.  Skills we were learning in unstructured, big, heavy, hard play were teaching us life lessons that no teacher, parent or technology can replicate.  We had to experience it.

Every time we moved aerobically, we were causing the brain to build new pathways and make new connections, improving the way we would learn.  Every time we climbed the monkey bars we were using core strength and balance which helped prepare us for sitting in a chair in elementary school.  Every time we got in a swing and pumped to our heart’s content we were building grip strength which would help us hold a pencil.

When I approach the movement room in each school, I feel a great responsibility to help guide these amazing kids into the successful students they will be in elementary school.  Movement powers their learning, it fuels them for success and I take that very seriously.  We spend time getting aerobic to fuel the brain, we build core strength and cross the mid-line actively.  We work on grip strength, upper and lower body strength.  We work on ways to recognize where we are in space and how much space we take up.  We stimulate the senses that allow us to recognize force and activate neural wiring.  But I only have the blessing of a few minutes a week with them.  Children need at least 60 minutes a day of free, big, full body, hard play.  And 60 minutes is the bare minimum.  It should be more.  Taking kids to explore playgrounds near and far is a great way to stimulate their brains and bodies.   Sending them outside to play in the backyard, without adult direction, is a great way to extend their social and emotional skills while boosting their learning skills.  Their “school” day isn’t finished when carpool ends.  Adding in as much movement and big play as possible every day will maximize a preschooler’s confidence, skill set and neurological preparation for things to come!  Kids need to Move to Learn!

Photo by Liza Blackburn