C25k for kids (Read 802 times)

I'm going to try to get my 7 year old son to do C25K with me (me with him rather). Reading about Daddyo's family racing together has inspired me to try to get him into running. My DS has a lazy streak a mile wide, and a can't do attitude that must be genetic. He enjoys physical activity, but has no desire to discipline himself or try to improve himself. I'm hoping that C25K's gradual approach will make it seem not hard at all, and inspire him by his increased performance. Wish me luck - alarms set for 5:30 AM tomorrow.

I'm so glad to find this post and thanks for the link teresa! My DD is 7 also, urbansix. She just ran her first one miler and I think she's hooked. it's so hard to know how much to push them... how to keep it fun and yet teach them a valuable skill.... like sticking with something even when it's hard. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

i don't have kids, but i teach high schoolers so i'm not sure i'm qualified to comment, but... be careful pushing your kid... you wouldn't want to turn him off from running. maybe start by encouraging him to bike with you while you run after work or something instead of waking him up at 5:30 and forcing him out the door...

I'm glad somebody else said it. I know how rarely feedback about somebody's kids is taken the right way, so please don't take offense. But when I read this, I had pretty much the same response Shanhas did.

My DS has a lazy streak a mile wide, and a can't do attitude ... has no desire to discipline himself or try to improve himself ... alarms set for 5:30 AM tomorrow.

My Dad sounded just like that. To this day, anything he encouraged me to do with that attitude is now on my list of stuff to avoid. Which is a shame. Are there really 7 year olds who think about self-improvement? I was thinking about cartoons and cereal boxes. And trying to avoid cooties. I strongly suspect if you drag him out of bed at 5:30 a.m. ... with the attitude that he's lazy and needs self improvement ... you're going to create a lifelong hater of all things running. Just my two cents. But I think Shanhas' approach is far more likely to have the desired results. The people I know how got their kids into running (or other cool stuff) did it by letting their kids see them do it, and sharing their enthusiasm for it ... and then waiting for the kid to beg to go with them.

Good points all. No I don't plan on dragging him out of bed with the attitude that he's lazy. My goal here is to demonstrate to him (trick him in to demonstrating to himself? Wax on/wax off) that he can improve on something by working at it. My goal or desire is that it will be something he will enjoy doing with me and hopefully will eventually understand the benefits. But I want to ease him in to it - that's why something like the C25K. I guess my wording was not the way I meant it, and should have had a smiley with it. I see him developing negative attitudes towards work ethic (effort ethic?) that are exactly like mine growing up. That you have to be inherently "good at something" in order to excel at it. Otherwise there is no point in trying. That you should wait around and find out what you are "good at" and do that. That is how I was raised (that synopsis is probably unfair in its brevity, but a definite impression along those lines was left). I want him to discover (as I have in my adult life) that if you work at something you can do things you did or would not have thought possible for yourself, and I'm doing my best to nudge him to that discovery without turning him off to it. I was raised that competition and conflict are one in the same, that the desire to work hard to be better, be it than your fellow man, or your former self, or your previous generation's economic position, or whatever, are vanities, or thumbing your nose at your place in God's great plan. That people who excel or succeed do so because they have been given a special gift, or cheated on the backs of the weak, and not because they worked hard at it. Thus I ended up with nary a competitive bone in my body, didn't do any sports myself ( a little CC), and fear I will make a terrible coach. But I'll give it a shot. By no means do I want to make him into a "show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser" or "second place is first loser" mindset. But ultimately I want him to end up with the desire to take on a challenge just to prove that he can reach something just out of his reach. That ended up long...

I just have to say be careful! My dad was/is a runner and his idea of fun was to drag me out running with him (sometimes literally dragging me) I did end up running track and cross country, but I ALWAYS HATED to run. It has only been in the last few months that I have discovered that running can be fun. However, DD did do C25K with me (she is 11 years old)- but she tended to be the one dragging me out the door. She now loves running and just ran her first 5K with a time of 28 min while she talked to every last person on the course ( I am thinking she might have a future in reporting on running since she gets so much information out of people when she runs with them).

I'm going to try to get my 7 year old son to do C25K with me (me with him rather). Reading about Daddyo's family racing together has inspired me to try to get him into running. My DS has a lazy streak a mile wide, and a can't do attitude that must be genetic. He enjoys physical activity, but has no desire to discipline himself or try to improve himself. I'm hoping that C25K's gradual approach will make it seem not hard at all, and inspire him by his increased performance. Wish me luck - alarms set for 5:30 AM tomorrow.

Make it fun, have little mini races together, go slow if they want to, take gatorade 'cuz kids love that stuff. Stop a lot at first, pick a stop sign ahead and guess how long it will take then go for it and see how accurate you are. Buy thema nice runniung shirt / windbreaker etc. Have someone tell them how geat it is their a 'runner'... But the best advice I can say is sign up for the race and 'look forward to it' - then, he'll have 'a time to beat'. He will also get a kick out of the attention young kids get. They also love the pics!

All good advice from previous posters, I would just add my two cents. I just started running last September. Never suggested to my very couch potato 4 year old daughter that she ought to run with me. I would just tell her that I was running. She and my husband came to my first 5k race last Thanksgiving, and she immediately wanted to know when she could do one. I asked her one day if she wanted to go for a run with me. She said yes, and didn't want to run more than 10 feet. I let her walk and we went back home. I figured that was that. I let it go. Last week she surprised me and asked to run around our cul de sac. Off she went, around it twice (about 300 yards). She was excited and not even out of breath. And then she immediately asked when we could buy her some running clothes like mine. THAT's my girl!!

Dane's a better cheerleader than a runner. He is 7 and last Summer I decided to have him run with me a little...just maybe a quarter-mile for starters. After about 50 yards he was whining to stop...and this is the same kid who on a playground will move for 30 minutes non-stop, easily. He will also ride his bike for an hour or more without much stopping. So for him structured running just isn't his thing. Cycling with his dad is something he enjoys a great deal more and takes no encouragement or prodding for him to take part in. So if kids of runners don't enjoy running, don't give up on them enjoying a physical activity--just be open to other things that they can do and enjoy. Cycling is good (though not cheap), as is soccer (cheaper). It's OK with me that my son isn't all that interested in running (I'll bet he eventually gets the bug, though)...I hate 5ks and if I got him into running I'd have to do 5ks with him, instead of the longer distances that are often offered at the same races...which would bum me out big time. And I wouldn't have this on the side of the race course, either: