Making your child exercise in a routine might be tough. They might feel lethargic about it, have more interesting things to do, or might simply find exercising boring. Whatever their reason might be, exercising will always be an essential part in their growth.
A good alternative to make exercise interesting is to make them dance. Dancing will keep them moving and make sure they don’t sink into the world of sloth.
Not only does dance keep children energized, it also teaches them team spirit. Dancing is fun. Dancing is safe. Dancing is enjoyable. Many more answers you’ll find when you ask why dancing is good for my child. Let’s explore more such answers!!
10 Reasons Why Dance is Good for Kids:
1. Staying Busy
Childhood is the time when a child cannot stay idle and ideally must not stay idle. Why? Because in this age, constant learning is very essential so that a momentum is maintained and the child’s mind is not hit by any vague thoughts.
Apart from the physical energy, the mental energy is equally important. The mental energy also needs to be utilized while exhausting the physical energy and here is when dance comes into the scene. Synching the body moves with each other, matching the dance moves with the rhythm of the music helps the mind use the idle energy along with the physical one.
2. Makes Them Vocal and Expressive
So, dance would help my child learn and show great dance moves, right? No! You’d be surprised to know how many young dancers learn to express themselves through dance. Not only do they ace their dance moves, they become more vocal and expressive. They learn how to present their emotions and parents get to understand them better. So, if your child is showing even a wee bit of interest in dance, go ahead, encourage them, enroll them in some dance classes, hone their skills.
3. Keeps Them Physically Strong
Let’s face it, physical fitness is very important, especially at an early age. Although, exercising is a great way to maintain physical fitness, kids usually turn their faces the moment they hear the word ‘Exercise’. It doesn’t interest most of the kids. Now, if you turn on some music and tell your child, “Let’s Dance!” chances are very bright that he will join you and show you some of his moves he learnt by watching that video on TV. Dancing is the next best alternative to exercise when it comes to physical fitness and health. It promotes their overall health while boosting their stamina and building their inner strength.
4. Increases Flexibility
Dancing involves a lot of steps and moves that would make your child bend himself or lift himself in a way you’d be surprised to see. Regular dancing will make your child supple and help them gain increased flexibility. At an early stage, working upon your child’s flexibility is not as hard as it is at a later age but is very important. Did you know that children with increased flexibility are less prone to getting injured
5. Elevates Confidence
As your child starts becoming more social, it is important that he doesn’t lose confidence in himself. He needs to know that he is not less than anyone. Dance is a way to enhance emotional expression which in turn teaches the child to not feel inferior about his feelings in front of others. An emotionally expressive child has the confidence levels that can match grownups. Dancing can be his release, his expression which will give him strength and belief in himself. An emotionally free child is automatically elevated to a completely different level than his peers.
6. Corrects Their Posture
Nobody would want their children to not have the correct posture or to slouch when sitting or standing. You wouldn’t want him to dawdle around the house or when with other children would you? Dancing would make sure that your child maintains the right posture always, while sitting, standing, eating, doing any activity. The correct posture comes to the child automatically with regular dance practice.
7. It’s Fun
Fun, Fun, Fun. Childhood is all about having fun. Fun in every activity. Children find fun in the smallest of chores they are given. Give them a pillow with its cover and watch them enjoy a pillow fight. But with more and more gadgets becoming a part of our lives, these activities are getting limited. Children are more interested in that online game or that interesting video on the phone or the laptop rather than finding fun in an activity. Dancing is an activity that interests all the children. They love to move their bodies on a beat. All they need is some space and some loud music. Dancing is not about winning a competition or doing tough looking gymnastic tricks. Dancing is about letting yourself loose and having fun. And that is what children are best at doing.
8. Engage Them in an Art Form
Dance is not just moving your body and jumping up and down. Dance is also an art form. The Indian classical dance forms are respected the world over. Millions of people around the world are attracted by the Indian classical dances so much so that they actually come to India to learn them. Apart from having fun, such dance forms can nurture the artist in your child. You never know if your child is tomorrow’s Pandit Birju Maharaj or Mallika Sarabhai.
9. Helps Introverts
Man is a social animal. A child is a social baby animal. Leave a child alone and he’ll start looking for someone to talk to. But there are children who don’t concur with this. They like staying alone and doing activities on their own. They can be introverted and be slow when it comes to socializing with other children and making friends. Though not a bad quality, being introverted can lead to many problems that may crop up later in the child’s life. Dance can be an outlet or the doorway to the outside world. The child meets other children, they dance together, compete with each other, learn things from each other. In short, dance can unfold a child’s introverted emotional envelope and let him fly out in the open.
10. Boosts Their Creative Side
No matter whatever the style your kid is pursuing, dancing techniques and tricks encourage their creative side. As they start to feel the dance moves, slowly and gradually they invent and make up their own. May it be hip-hop, contemporary, or classical, the child will find his own way to express himself in many ways. The creation of new things out of their own imagination is their creativity.
Apart from the physical energy, the mental energy is equally important. The mental energy also needs to be utilized while exhausting the physical energy and here is when dance comes into the scene. Synching the body moves with each other, matching the dance moves with the rhythm of the music helps the mind use the idle energy along with the physical one.
