I recently took a job at a private school teaching Physical Education for grades 1-8.  There was no doubt that I would love working with the kids, even though their gym class is limited to once weekly.

Then a friend sent me this compelling article, which simply reinforces not only the work I’m doing with the school children, but also inspires me to work even more with my own three children.  I do make them play outside every day, but I think I can do more to just be active with them.  Scoring well in school is a great incentive in addition to the physical benefits of exercise.

Take a look at this article from the NY Times as it describes two studies on children and how activity affected their brain development.  Pay close attention to what it says about the Wii.

Now, if the kids had more time to play instead of doing homework, then we’d all be improving our mental health! 

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/phys-ed-can-exercise-make-kids-smarter/