Everyone needs water to remain hydrated and healthy, especially children. Approximately half of a child’s weight is water, and as children are very active they lose a lot of water throughout the day. It is important that the water that is lost is replaced continuously in order to keep your child’s body in perfect health and performing optimally.
Of course, getting a child to drink water when they would much rather drink a sweet carbonated drink or a glass of chocolate milk is a bit tricky. Teaching them why water is important to them and how it can help them grow in a fun way may endear them more to drinking water more regularly.
Plant Experiment
A good way to do this is to run an experiment with your child. Experiments are fun and an easy way to teach a child just about anything:
- Get two plants that are exactly the same and place them in a nice sunny spot that is accessible for your child;
- Explain to your youngster that plants need water to grow the same as humans do;
- Tell him or her to water only one plant and not the other
- Make a time for both of you to get together every day to check on the plants and see how they are doing
- Explain to him/her that if he or she does not drink water regularly the same thing that is happening to the plant he is not watering will happen to his body
- Explain that just as the water is helping the plant that he is water to grow new leaves, shoot sprouts and eventually flower, so drinking water will help his body to grow new cells and muscles and grow tall and strong
- Tell him that when he is feeling tired and not really interested in playing a lot it is probably because his body does not have enough water to work properly like the plant without water that is limp
- After a few days get him or her to start watering the other plant too and observe how it comes back to life, turns green again and starts to grow like the other one
Observing the effects that water has on plants is one of the easiest and best ways to teach a child how important drinking water is for our bodies. Tell him or her that they need to drink water regularly throughout the day and more often if they are active.
Buying a water cooler is also a great way of ensuring that there is always cool, refreshing water handy for the whole family to drink. Children feel very grown up when they drink water from a water cooler because they can have fun serving themselves and their friends, even if they are still very young.
Water coolers make access to fresh, cold drinking water a breeze, so everyone in your family will drink water more often. This is great news for moms, as they will not get sick as often if they are always fully hydrated.
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