Last week, I had a sudden idea to adjust the children's schedule, mainly by increasing physical activities. In the morning, I used to take a solo walk, but now I changed it to around six in the afternoon when I take the kids for a walk.
The effect was noticeable. Previously, my second child took a long time to finish homework, no matter how much there was, it would take about two hours, and often they would fall asleep while writing.
Before, no matter if I rewarded with snacks, screen time, or even game time, the effect was good on the first day, but gradually lost its effectiveness. They even started to bargain, wanting to split the rewards, getting a little first and then negotiating. Eventually, it became ineffective, and urging them had no effect.
Until last week, when I said we would go to the park after finishing homework, the first day they were motivated and quickly finished their homework. While their mom was cooking, we went for a walk in the park. The next day, we did the same and took a small basketball to practice dribbling in preparation for the May Day sports event. In the first two days, we explored all the winding paths in the park that we hadn't walked before. It reminded me of a game commentary where in an online game, one character stopped playing, and the other character, for the last time, accompanied the one who stopped to visit all the famous landmarks in the game world, taking screenshots at various emotional spots. Fortunately, that was just a game. Some even developed emotional disputes, stepping into reality, and some online romances turned into real-life couples.
Back to the topic, after exploring, we would play basketball or use the gym equipment for a while. In the volleyball game, I made my second child shoot a hundred times without interruption. I noticed he was getting smoother, so I said I would shoot a thousand times in one go. After I shot a few, he thought it wasn't difficult and wanted to go first. I counted a few hundred, but my second child easily interrupted. In the end, we changed it to dribbling for ten minutes, freely dribbling without stopping, just using my phone to time it.
After getting tired of dribbling, we started kicking the ball, just like when I was a kid with my classmates. After playing basketball, we began playing soccer with the same ball. My second child was really tired and just lay down on the ground. I quickly pulled him up. Recently, he has been having stomach aches, probably from laughing too much (just joking). Haha. He had diarrhea and took ofloxacin, but it didn't help. I also bought some Baota candy for him to eat. Only when he has a bowel movement can we see if it works.
Exercise brings happiness and optimism. Many people with mobility issues may be depressed, which is probably related to this.