A Newport kindergarten is pioneering personal training for its three and four-year-olds.
Home Road Kindergarten has teamed with Williamstown fitness club Healthy Fit to run fitness activities for children.
An Active Healthy Kids Report Card recently ranked Australia 11th out of 14 nations on physical activity levels.
The report, compiled by universities and research institutes, gave Australian children a D- for physical activity levels after finding 80 per cent of children aged 5-17 were not doing the recommended 60 minutes of exercise a day.
The kinder’s educational leader, Lynsey Leong, said the fitness program was aimed at getting the children healthy and interested in sport. “It’s a huge part of their physical development, especially at a really young age – that’s when they master skills,” she said. “They build a lot of confidence through what they can do physically. If they have races, they always want to win, and it’s all about, ‘I can do this’.”
Ms Leong said many families could not afford to pay for their children to do physical activities like Auskick or dance classes outside kinder.
Healthy Fit instructors have been teaching children to do push-ups and sit-ups and take part in sprints, obstacle courses and games.
Ms Leong said the kids can’t wait to see their instructors. “We don’t force the children to do something they don’t want to do,” she said. “It’s all fun. It’s all in the name of play and experimenting, and the kids love that.”
