June 2nd marks National Health and Fitness Day across the country.
At the Lheidli T’enneh Memorial Park Yoga, Zumba, a Family Hike, and Soccer took place free for anyone who wants to take part.
A project called Physical Literacy is also happening, and Sports Coordinator Francois Loignon says it challenges children to think while being active.
“These are games that you do to learn fundamental movements skills. Basically being literate, so being confident, and wanting to play sports and use those skills you have learned for the future.”
Physical Literacy focuses on younger children ages three to nine and groups them into their developmental level to hone certain skills they possess.
Membership Sales Supervisor for the YMCA, Samantha Pratt, says before grouping children off it was an issue when trying to build confidence for kids.
“Our programs were recently developed based on age and now we’ve changed it so that the programs you’re registered in reflect your developmental level. We were having a lot of issues with programs before because if you were in a six to nine program, the nine-year-old isn’t going to be challenged because we are probably modifying activities so the six-year-old can participate in.”
She added this can hinder a child’s development because they may feel inadequate to other older kids. The Physical literacy program helps breaks those barriers for all kids to take part in and develop skills.
National Health and Fitness Day is put on by Engage Sport North, the City of Prince George and the YMCA of Northern BC.
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