Mobilizing Passionate Moms to Get Kids Moving Before School [Podcast Series]

  • [:54] Dr. Bantham introduces her guest, Kathleen Tullie

    • Kathleen Tullie is Founder and CEO of Active Kids Active Minds.

  • [1:13] Active Kids Active Minds history and evolution

    • “And after reading Dr. Ratey's book, he laid out such compelling evidence on why kids should run around and play before school. So I was with a few other moms and talked about why don't we start a before school physical activity program? I mean, there's so many parents that need to get to work earlier. Kids were designed to move, they're not meant to sit in front of screens all day. And we're doing it right on my front lawn, why not do it at the school and give the school kids an opportunity? It will help the school.  It will help the teachers, the parents, it's just a win-win.”

  • [5:17] Power of moms

    • “If you are a concerned mom, it is just in your DNA, you will fight to the end to make sure that your child gets what they need. And nobody understands that until they're a mom. And so I think people just started to see that their kids, their kids that had social issues or academic issues or couldn't sleep, that all of a sudden, little Johnny or Jennifer could go run around on the playground, and they were calmer at school and their anxiety was less and their teacher was reporting they could focus on a problem. And we have really engineered physical activity out of our lifestyles. But our brain doesn't know that. And our body doesn't know that. So, I feel like it's going to have to be parents, caregivers, moms and dads that bring back physical activity to kids.” 

  • [8:41] The importance of a school champion

    • “It does not happen in the US without a school champion. And it can be the janitor, it can be the principal, it can be the superintendent, but you need that consistent voice there. And I'll tell you in school districts where the superintendent is onboard, you see tremendous results.”

  • [11:05] Reebok and creating a culture of participants

    • “We believe that the sporting goods industry has created a culture of spectators. And we need to reverse that and create a culture of participants. And no better way to start with youth and moms.”

  • [13:32] Curriculum and skills development

    • “And every week has a skill of the week teaching the kids something, but it starts with a fun warm up, a relay race or some activity that incorporates the movement, whether it's squats or lunges or sit ups, then it goes into a game. We think games are really important because we want to make sure that every kid loves movement. It's not about being an athlete or some famous sports star, it's about just getting out there and enjoying the love of movement and making sure your endorphins are firing and preparing you to take on the day.”

  • [17:17] Kids as future consumers

    • “Look at it this way. We have, what are the stats? 24% of adults are inactive, but 82% of kids are inactive. So when those 82% of kids become adults and they're the purchaser, they're the purchasing power, they're not going to be focused on sports or movement unless we evolve. Also, there's going to be a lot more mental health and physical problems.” 

  • [21:29] Movement addressing learning loss

    • “We know that kids absorb more and learn more if they can move. So I just think we have to keep pushing this agenda and make sure that administrators and educators know this. And maybe it's time to redesign our education, reimagine our education, maybe there's stuff that doesn't need to be in the curriculum and schools and teachers don't need to be judged on it. I can't imagine that there would be any case where you would see a classroom that allows the kids to move and play for anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes a day where they're going to have more learning loss.  It's going to actually, all the science shows that they would actually do better.” 

  • [26:15] Fighting social media and inactivity

    • “You have so many things that are joining forces to actually do a disservice to our kids. So not only were they already physically inactive, but then you combine that with social media and the addiction to social media. And it is really alarming and really scary.”

  • [30:37] Active Kids Active Minds future

    • “My hope is that we can continue the momentum and that eventually we along with others collaborate and create a movement around bringing back daily PE and PA to schools. That would be my dream is that can we reimagine education and every school day has PE and PA and PE teachers are looked at as just as important and valuable as math, science or English.”

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Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine with Anti-Obesity Medications [Podcast Series]

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Tailoring Physical Activity Programs for People Taking Anti-obesity Medications [Podcast Series]