http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2006/06/21/five-year-old-perfect-ddr-dancer/ Daily writings about fitness, diet, and health Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:33:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2006/06/21/five-year-old-perfect-ddr-dancer/#comment-35685 Liz Sat, 15 Jul 2006 02:59:56 +0000 http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2006/06/21/five-year-old-perfect-ddr-dancer/#comment-35685 <p>I agree with you Karla, but you have to agree that DDR promotes coordination skills. I agree that regular kids' activities are better than video games, but I don't see the harm, especially if it's a rainy or cold day, to do DDR sometimes. I won't specualte on the dad's intentions, but I wouldn't assume that he was demanding his kid to perform. It's just as likely that the kid was really good at it and the dad wanted to show the rest of the world with no promting given to the kid whatsoever. Whoever you are little guy you are so totally awesome!!! (I wonder if they give college scholarships for DDR?)</p> http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2006/06/21/five-year-old-perfect-ddr-dancer/#comment-28533 Karla Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:39:03 +0000 http://www.starling-fitness.com/archives/2006/06/21/five-year-old-perfect-ddr-dancer/#comment-28533 <p>I had a somewhat different reaction to this video -- it was cute to see-- although somewhat disturbing, because he's better at DDR than I am. But I don't really want my soon-to-be five year old to play DDR, as I don't think it's age appropriate exercise. Instead, we go swimming for hours, take bike rides together (he's just now riding a "big" bike with training wheels-- on Sunday we rode 3/4 of a mile away to another neighborhood park and then rode around the 2/3 mile track around that park), he plays on the playground at our neighborhood park, we go for "flower" walks, etc. And he occasionally goes to the gym with me, where-- even though he plays in the children's room-- he knows I am exercising. </p> <p>Five year olds don't need to be playing video games for their exercise. They need to be outside engaging the world and their peers, not performing like a circus animal for the parents and the rest of the outside world. I would no more want my five year old to do DDR than I would want him to walk on a treadmill or use the weight machines. Five year olds love to run, climb, swim, bike, and hike. Five year olds will get plenty of exercise naturally if you provide them with the opportunities to do so, and their parents doing it side by side is a much healthier family lifestyle, IMO, than teaching them a video game.</p> <p>Karla</p>