Free Healthy and Fitness Fair

A few nights ago my four-year-old son started singing a song in the backseat of my car.  Unfortunately it was not the Itsy Bitsy Spider or Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Instead my sweet little four-year-old sat in the back seat of my car singing.

Let the bodies hit the floor,

Let the bodies hit the floor,

Let the bodies hit the (and in his best scream-o voice) FLOOOOOR.

I am not sure which band sings this song, but I know exactly where he picked it up.  His seventeen year old brother is a big music fan and has developed a taste for scream-o.  I might be embarrassed to share the story of my “grown too soon” son except that as a parent, I know that children are sponges. 

While moments like this often leave me shaking my head, this sponge effect is something well worth exploiting and I am not beyond exploiting it on a daily basis.  My husband and I are both athletes.  We both run marathons, watch what we eat and talk about our health and fitness choices in front of our children on a regular basis. 

The result of this sharing has been that our older children are very conscious about their health.  Now that my older two children are teenagers and are making more decisions regarding their fitness on their own, I am able to see the influence our lifestyle has had on them. 

Educators have long been aware of this sponge effect in our children.  Educators strive to reinforce safety and health ideals in school as much as possible, but the time children spend in school is limited.  Because of this the schools in the Chesapeake Cluster, including Bodkin, Ft. Smallwood, Jacobsville, Lake Shore and Pasadena Elementary Schools, and Chesapeake Bay Middle and Chesapeake Senior High, have come together to organize and sponsor the Fourth Annual Free Health and Safety Fair.

The fair will take place on May 21^st from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Chesapeake Bay Middle School.  During the fair families can explore dozens of booths, gather health and safety information, receive free screenings and enjoy a variety of entertainment. In addition, this is a great opportunity to receive free Child “Ident-A-Kid” saftey cards courtesy of The Pasadena Business Association.

As a parent, I sometimes feel like I can talk until I am blue in the face and my children will still not listen to what I say.  As a result, I have come to believe that it is my actions that speak loudest.  By making health and fitness a priority in my life, I have made it a priority in theirs.

Events such as the Health and Safety Fair give parents the opportunity to bring this point home for their children. By spending the morning exploring the booths and exhibits, parents are reinforcing ideals that we all hope our children will adhere to.  The Chesapeake Cluster hopes that this event will continue to grow and that families in our schools will continue to benefit from the information received there.