'Get Up And Get Going', Doctor, PE Teacher Encourage Kids To Move With Fun Dance Video
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - At a time when children need to be inside, it can be hard to get them up and moving.
That's why a doctor at Broward Health and a P.E. teacher came up with an idea.
Get up and get going!
That's the message Dr. Catalina Ruiz Mesa wants children to know as they stay safe at home.
"Get them motivated. Get them moving," she says. "During this time, we are not the best in the way we eat or take care of ourselves."
However, she isn't just telling them, she is showing them how through a fun video.
She and other staff at Broward Health put on their dancing shoes to give kids some ideas they can do at home, like dance moves and stretching.
"Especially now in this time that everyone is homeschooling, and they are sitting on the couch trying to learn on the computers," Ruiz Mesa says.
The idea for her exercise video came from a conversation with the mother of one of her young patients.
Beth-Ann Fraser-Boegler is a P.E. teacher, and her 8-year-old son Tommy is battling kidney cancer. Having to stay inside, even before the pandemic, is something they're used to.
"Unfortunately he can't leave the room too much," Fraser-Boegler saif. "There's only a certain amount of things we can do, but I find when I do get him up and exercising and out of the bed and then sitting in the chair, he does have more energy."
Teaching physical education to kindergartners through the internet means thinking outside the box. That's when she recruited Dr. Ruiz Mesa's help for a fun film session.
"I am going to send it to my kids online and show them this is how we exercise and how Tommy exercises in the hospital, so we can do it anywhere," says Fraser-Boegler.
They hope students and their families take away the message that anyone can make it work if they just get a little creative, whether you're in the hospital, or in your living room, or out in the yard.
"Whether you're vacuuming or running in place or dancing, it's exercise. It doesn't matter that we are all stuck at home," said Fraser-Boegler. "You know, sock basketball. Putting out a laundry basket and throwing socks. Anything!"
After a great response from her students, they plan to make more videos like this, and they hope that families will continue good physical habits, even after things gradually return to normal.
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