Playful Weekends #6: Sports, Early Childhood Education & More!
Happy Independence Day to all our Indian readers! :)
This week’s post comes to us from Sheetal Jain & Mridula Chalamalasetti.
An event that is filled with hard work, dedication, and emotions, “The Olympics” kept people around the world at the edge of their sofas.
At Tokyo 2020, we witnessed some teens win accolades for their countries after finishing at the podium. This speaks volumes about the importance of starting early. Studies have shown that kids who play sports perform better at academics.
Stories from the Indian contingent that stand out
Here are what we think are the top 3 success stories among the Indian contingent at the Mega event
Mira Bai Chanu - A story that starts off at picking up firewood when she was very young and became popular when she picked up a total of 202kg resulting in a podium finish. She started off with an intention of becoming an archer but later took inspiration from Kunjrani Devi(a well-known weightlifter) to now inspire people across the globe.
Saurabh Chaudhary - He is an 18-year-old Indian Pistol shooter who made it to the finals at the Olympics. He took up the sport at the age of 13 and practiced outdoors daily due to a lack of proper facilities. He is the youngest Indian Gold medalist at the Asian games. Also has multiple medals at the ISSF(International Shooting Sport Federation) and World Championships.
Manu Bhaker - Manu is the youngest Indian to win a gold at the Shooting World Cup. This 19-year-old has also played various sports such as Boxing and Tennis at the National Level. Her father identified her skill when she hit the 7.5 mark at the very first try in the shooting range at her school. At Tokyo 2020, she made her Olympic debut at 3 events.
As parents here are some things you can do with your kids to get them playing:
1) Play sports with them.
2) If the sports rules get hard to follow, make your own rules that are easy to follow so that they can have fun.
3) Identify your kids interest and enroll them to learn that from professionals.
4) Encourage your kids to call friends home or go to friends home to play a sport.
References:
Some Athletes who started young: https://sportsretriever.com/uncategorized/starting-young-ages-worlds-top-athletes-start-training/
Research showing importance of early brain development: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/inbrief-science-of-ecd/
How to get kids interested in sports :
https://www.spookynooksports.com/blog/manheim/how-to-get-kids-interested-in-sports
Keeping with the spirit of the Olympics,
We’ve designed our latest Challenge around the event,
Get your kids to participate to earn rewards!
Download here:
About the Authors
Sheetal Jain & Mridula Chalamalasetti are Teach For India fellows by day and Upepo’s product development interns by night! They’re exceptional teachers and driven to bring the joy of playful, project-based learning to children across the world.