Keep Children Active with Kids Smart Watches

Remaining active is key to everyone’s physical and mental wellbeing, and you don’t even need to leave the house in order to get the heart rate up and feel the benefits. With no sign of this isolation ending soon parents might be struggling for ways to inspire their children to get outside, or to take up some home exercise plans, but at least with kids' smart watches and fitness trackers you could give them a bit of a push in the right direction.

Adapted for the smaller wrists and without some of the key features found on most adult versions, kids smart watches can be setup to give children daily step targets in order to stay fit and healthy.

There are also benefits for parents in the sense that the GPS features built into a number of kids fitness trackers and smart watches enable you to keep an eye on where they are. Utilising the same GPS feature that many adults use to track runs and walks on their own devices, kids fitness trackers and smart watches can be used to check that children are where they said they were – such as at a friend’s house, in the park or any other safe location for that all-important parental peace of mind when they do finally leave the house.

A lot of kids smart watches and fitness trackers are also capable of receiving, and even making, text messages and social media notifications. Devices like the full-size Fitbit fitness trackers and Apple Watches receive and display notifications including the content of a text message and the sender, and even display that someone is ringing your connected smartphone, and through the kids versions they can receive your own message telling them it’s time to come in for tea!

At the moment there are a wealth of different fitness trackers and smart watches for kids available, each offering different features or functions that enable children to stay connected, and to get active.

• Fitbit Ace 2 - Available in a choice of two colours the Fitbit Ace 2 is a fun, comfortable and practical kids fitness tracker that also features parental control functions. From a child’s perspective this smart watch is a great looking entry-level device that offers plenty of challenges and goal celebrations to keep the motivation levels up.

• Samsung Galaxy Fit - An adaptation of the Galaxy Watch, the Samsung Galaxy Fit is a fitness tracker that is sleek, lightweight and stylish making it a valid option for older kids and teenagers really starting to get into their fitness. With the ability to monitor their physical exertion, breathing and even sleep patterns through the app, the Galaxy Fit is one of the highest rated and best-looking fitness trackers going.

While some of the benefits of kids fitness trackers and smart watches are likely to be of benefit in the long-term, and when the isolation period is lifted, there are still some benefits of investing in kids smart watches today. With plenty of inspiration around on social media from footballers trapped at home and the likes of Joe Wicks running home P.E. lessons on YouTube, there are plenty of opportunities to stay fit and healthy without leaving home.

Here are just a few different things you can do to try and keep your children active at home during these strange times:

1. Make sure you do get your allowance of exercise

The government has permitted one piece of exercise each day, so make sure you get it! This could be anything from a walk around the park near your home to a short cycle around the area you know well. Whatever it is that gets you in the fresh air and the heart rate elevated will be of benefit – just be sure to maintain that social distancing.

2. Workout at home

There are plenty of family-friendly workouts that you can do at home, and Joe Wicks’ PE lessons are a prime example. They require little to no equipment at all and you have him on the screen explaining what you need to do and showing you how to do it. They’re great for kids but are equally great for the whole family to try!

3. Get out in the garden

If you have a garden, make the most of it! Whether it’s playing football together, running laps of the garden itself, playing cricket or doing shuttle runs; the exercise you can get at home is already paid for! Get outside and use all of that play and sporting equipment you’ve bought over the years and you could even plan a few new games to mix things up.

4. Work with what you’ve got

If you are a family who enjoy working out you could improvise with weights and equipment from around the house. Bottles of washing up liquid or containers of fabric softener are great for makeshift weights so you can all give it a go with the most appropriate while the gyms and parks are closed off.

5. Create daily family challenges

Having bought your new smart watches and fitness trackers it’s time to put them to good use. Many of the associated apps like Fitbit allow you to create and join challenges with friends to rack up as many steps as possible over a set period of time ranging from daily to weekly activities – why not give them a go and see who wins?