Sports are something people of any age can be fans of, but their impact might be the strongest on young children. The impact sports have on children at a young age can be a positive influence that helps children in many areas of their life. Sports can teach children about so many areas of life that will be essential to their future successes, such as social skills, the ability to work with others, determination, meeting people from foreign countries and much more.
Photo by Jenn SterThe positive impact sports have on children makes them something parents should get their children interested in, since it also will benefit the parents. What can be done by families to inspire their kids to play sports?
Start a Game at Home
One of the ways to get children to begin playing sports is to play a game with them at the comforts of their home. If you present the game in a fun manner where the children are with people they have fun with, there is a better chance they will begin to become fans of it. Children are often motivated by their parents at a young age, and if they see their parents having fun with a sport, they are more likely to start playing that sport themselves.
Buy Some Cheap Gear
Purchasing cheap gear is another way to motivate children to try a sport out. If they are given the opportunity to use different equipment, there’s a greater chance they will find a sport they love. Buying your child an inexpensive baseball bat is a simple way to expose them to baseball, and make them want to play that sport. It can be a special gift to them that motivates them to play baseball. Inexpensive gear as a whole is a great way to expose children to different sports, and make them interested in trying them out.
Giving Children Something to Work For
Having sports in children’s lives has plenty of positive impacts, one of which is how it can open opportunities for them later in life. Being introduced to sports at a young age increases the chances that they are able to develop skills strong enough to get scholarships to schools that give them great opportunities for success in life as a professional athlete or another profession. Playing sports opens opportunities for post-secondary school and successful careers, but they can also give the individual something to work for that keeps them out of trouble in high school and college.
Getting children to play sports at a young age is something important to their personal development. Important principles of life are introduced in sports that will be important to future success of the child. Having children play sports teaches them to try hard and work towards something, while it also improves their physical and emotional health, and social skills. Sports are not just about winning, as there are valuable skills and lessons within them as well.
Sports might determine your next travel destination
Different kind of sport events can also determine where to go as your next travel destination and also when to go, since there might be big sport events announced at that destination – especially if you and your kids are more explorers than beach bums that only want to relax at a gorgeous beach.
Why not try to combine those two interests to get more persons in the family to come along? Sharing interests within the entire family is a wellknown and sure bonding factor for the family. If a family member is active in a sport, there might be competitions to participate in at other places than home, even far away. Look them up and see if anything sounds appealing to you. Do some research around the area for things to do for the rest of family too.
When on a trip, there might also be other sport activities available than at home and you might even surprise yourself to test a sport that you or your kids never would even think of at home, just because you are in such relaxed and good holiday mood.
Lifecruiser Love Sports Travel
Being in Scandinavia or more exact, in Sweden, there is one sport event coming up very soon, that is more unusual and interesting than others: the Vikings Ice Race or Vikingarännet in Swedish. 80 kilometer long ice skating between the town Uppsala and Stockholm, Sweden’s capital city.
The idea of a Viking Ice Race popped up when visitors from the skating organisation from Holland visited Sweden after their Eleven Cities Tour (Elfstedentocht) of 1997 together with the winner of that years competition. An investigation started which later did show that the only route possible of a Swedish skate competition is just the route Uppsala-Stockholm, because it’s there the safest ices are with not so much open water.
To skate between Uppsala and Stockholm had been a classic route for all kinds of ice skaters for many years already before the Viking Run started for the first time in 1999, organized by the Friluftsfrämjandet organization and the Swedish skate association including other sponsors.
In 2013 it’s scheduled to go off at the 10th of February around 8am at Skarholmen, Uppsala and finish in Hässelby, a suburban of Stockholm. The Viking Run race is probably the worlds longest recurring ice skate race that take place on only natural ice and not on a special built up or artificial ice track.
There are actually several different races:
- The Vikingarännet 80 km start in Uppsala
- Tjejrännet (Women Race) 35 km start in Sigtuna
- A short race of 15 km start in Kungsängen
The race got it’s name from following the ancient Viking transport routes on lake Mälaren, but you don’t have to be a Viking to participate. All types of skates are allowed and I actually hope for some participants to choose similar skates as the Vikings!
Yes, even the Vikings did skate, but their skates were made of animal thigh/shin bones, had no shoe and were attached by leather strings only. At just one spot on the Swedish island Björkö, in the Viking town Birka, they found 70 skates together.
In this year’s vikingarännet there are more participants from other countries in Europe, like Great Britain, Belgium and Holland (last years winner) of course – so obviously this Swedish competition starts to be more known around Europe’s ice skaters.
If you have the opportunity to get there, there are plenty of places where you can see the ice skaters swooshing by. Or why not sign up for the race? Go to vikingarannet.com to signup or get more information.
Sign up for a distance that suits you, read the rules properly (ex. Ice prods are compulsory), prepare yourself to skate strong as a Viking, hope for great weather reports and have fun racing!
Lets hope the cold weather will continue, so there will be great ice’s for skating, you never know with the Swedish weather…
To get there:
From Europe there are low budget airlines like Norwegian.com or Ryanair.com to fly you to Stockholm, but I would try to get a Norwegian flight in the first hand, because you will arrive at Arlanda airport, which is much closer to the event than Skavsta airport where Ryanair arrives.
I also recommend that you take the arlandaexpress.com into Stockholm City Center or if you are going to Uppsala, take the special flightbus 801 between Arlanda airport and Uppsala. Also have a look at the arrivalguides.com and look up either Stockholm or Uppsala to get more start info about the two cities.
Special thanks to:
Anders Tysk, secretary-general and one of the originators of Vikingarännet for replying to my request, providing me with more information and pictures from the competition to use when writing this blog post.
©Lifecruiser Love Viking Ice Run
The Viking Run (Vikingarännet) 2013 Map, (click to see details)
Valentine’s is one of those days where you have the opportunity to surprise your wife and express your love like never before. Here are three unique ideas that you can use to surprise your wife this Valentine’s Day and have her fall in love with you all over again!
#1: Cook Dinner for Her
If your wife’s a housewife who usually spends the time in the kitchen cooking for the family, then why not surprise her by preparing a sumptuous meal this Valentine’s day? She will love you for taking out the time and put in the effort to cook for her.
However, do make sure you find a good recipe to work with if you want to her to fall in love with what you cook. Once you’re done with the cooking you can make the surprise even more surprising by setting up a beautiful candlelight dinner right at in the living room!
#2: Give Her the ‘Spa at Home’ Treatment
Want to make your gift really special? Then don’t give her the traditional gift certificate to the local spa. Instead, give her the same treatment at home. In other words, pamper her yourself and give her the best massage. Let her have the spa experience in the comfort of your home.
If you don’t think you’re good with bare hands then you can always buy oils along with massagers at a lifestyle store near you. Also, don’t forget to create the perfect ambience if you truly want her to enjoy the experience. Put on some slow, romantic music and make sure your room is dimly lit to make it more relaxing.
#3: Have Flowers Delivered
We all know that flowers will not last forever, but they still make up to be one of the most romantic gifts that you can give your wife on Valentine’s Day. The idea here is to surprise her, so don’t leave any hints beforehand. Whether she’s at home or at work, surprise her by having a beautiful flower arrangement delivered to her from Proplants.
While red roses happen to the most common choice when it comes to Valentine’s Day, you don’t have to stick to them. If your wife likes certain flowers, then it makes more sense to have them delivered instead. When she gets such a flowery surprise from you, it will not only make her smile but also make her feel very special.
It doesn’t matter how new or old your marriage is – the above Valentine’s Day surprise ideas work perfectly well for all couples. So go ahead and make your wife feel mega special, because she deserves it!
Lifecruiser Love Valentine Surprises
Some earlier Valentine related posts at Lifecruiser:
Love messages all over
Happy Valentine Life Kissers
Affordable Romantic Valentine Trips Tips
Tenereffic Romantic Sunset
With Love on Valentine Day
