Sports is one of the best ways to make sure that your kids stay in relatively good physical condition. By starting them out with sports or other physical fitness opportunities early, you’re creating a lifelong pattern that will, hopefully, pay off for you in the long run.

When you’re considering whether or not to put your toddler in a sports program, there are some factors that you’re going to need to consider.

Strength and motor skill development

A significant factor in what kind of physical activities you will be able to start your toddler on is their own strength and motor skill development.  By the time your toddler reaches 18 months of age, for example, she should be able to roll objects along the floor, walk both forward and backward, and probably go down the stairs backwards, using her hands and her knees.  By the age of 2 years old, she can probably run, open doors with handles, and push a box, chair, or stool into a spot to climb on to get things she can’t reach.  A year later, by the age of three, she will likely be able to jump, throw a ball, and climb up and down the stairs using both feet.  Any of these things are physical activities that you can start your toddler on.

Duration is a factor

How long your toddler is engaged in a sporting activity is key, as well. Doctors recommend around half an hour of planned, organized physical activity for toddlers every day.  In addition, they recommend an hour of unstructured physical activity as well.  If your toddler is going to engage in a stationary activity, such as watching television, these activities should not last more than one hour without stopping to start a physical activity.

Organized sports activities

In terms of organized sports, experts disagree about how young is too  young to start.  Many experts believe that the structure and pressure of organized sports is too much for a child until the age of six or so.  Others see no problem with starting physical activities that include organized sports a year or two earlier than this.

Be the example

Finally, your toddler will learn by example.  If he sees that mom or dad regularly engage in physical activities, he will want to do them too.  By starting your own physical fitness routine, you will help your toddler recognize the importance of physical activities.

It can be a challenge to maintain discipline in young children. The fact of the matter is that, at the age of toddler and earlier, children aren’t able to communicate as effectively as they are later on. Still, it is important that parents begin to discipline their child at a young age.

When thinking about discipline and young children, it is important to think about what exactly discipline is and what discipline is not. Often, when we think about discipline, we think about punishing a child for misbehavior. While this may indeed be a part of discipline, the fact of the matter is that, especially with young children, there are more important aspects to discipline. For example, encouraging positive behavior in young children tends to be much more productive than discouraging misbehavior. In addition, even misbehavior should be seen as an opportunity to teach the young child proper behavior, and to help the child to be able to communicate more effectively.

There are some techniques that are especially effective for discipline and young children. For example, redirection is one of the best tools that a parent has in terms of disciplining a young child. When a child is engaging in an inappropriate activity, simply approach the child and redirect them to a positive activity. Modeling is another excellent discipline technique for young children. When a child is stomping on his toy, for example, you can simply tell the child, “oh no, we mustn’t step on our toys. That will make them break, and then we won’t be able to play with them. Here is how we should play with this toy,” and then pick up the toy and model the right way to play with the toy.

Perhaps the most challenging part about disciplining young children is that they have limited empathy, and a somewhat limited understanding of cause and effect. When a child hits her brother, for example, she knows that the brother screams. She may even like the sound. But she may not understand that the sound is coming because her brother is in pain. Helping children to learn empathy and to understand cause and effect is an important part of disciplining young children as well.

The time out is a discipline method that has been becoming more popular in recent years.  The fact of the matter is that, for many toddlers the time out is a very effective method of discipline.  This is not to say that the time out works for every child.  This is also not to say that, sometimes, the time out will lose its effectiveness as a method of discipline for a given child.  This only means that many parents have had success using the time out as an effective method of toddler discipline.

But why does the time out work?  Why is it an effective method of discipline?  There are several things that the time out accomplishes.  First, if the time out is given for a misbehavior, it takes the child out of the situation in which he was misbehaving, effectively putting an immediate end to the bad behavior.  Second, a time out gives the child a few minutes, undistracted by other children or other external stimuli, to calm down.  Once the child has calmed down, they are much more likely to be compliant.  But a time out does more than this.  It also allows the parents some time to calm down, and make sure that they are not disciplining out of anger.  It is because of all of these reasons that the time out tends to be an effective method of discipline.

To use a time out, you first need to pick a spot, isolated from the normal activity of your home, to use as the time out spot.  When a toddler is not compliant, give them a warning that they will go to time out if they do not comply.  Then, follow through.  If the child does not comply, tell them to go to time out, gently guiding them there if necessary.  The child then will need to stay in time out for a number of minutes equal to their years of age, after which, if they are calm and quiet, you will give them another opportunity to comply.  If they do not comply, you then send the child back to time out.

When used properly and consistently, the time out can be one of the most effective methods of discipline that you can use with your toddler.