AND THEY’RE OFF: Hannah Maguire Overdevest, Cleve Barraclough, Jack Maguire Overdevest, Quinn Cooper, Emmett Jones, Aaron Nilleson, Tyler Power, Cohen Lawsen, Kensy Mews, Hokianga Boynton, Georgia Watkins, Mieke Wycherley and Saron Jago try to run like the wind as educarer Yvonne Turfrey coaxes them on. Photos Louis Klaassen D4126-008
YOUNGSTERS enrolled with Waiapu Kids Homebased Childcare ran and jumped like little athletes during the childcare service’s Olympic Day last Friday.
Visiting teacher Dianne Bulled said the ministry of health recommended toddlers and pre-school children had at least three hours of physical activity every day.
She said holding a children’s Olympics day was a good way to inspire them.
“That’s something we really want to encourage with our educarers because a lot of children probably wouldn’t be getting that,” she said.
The list of activities included high jump, hurdles, long jump, running, sack races, egg and spoon races and running around cones.
Though there were children as young as six months old in attendance, the participants were between one and four years old.
It was clear that some of the children had been watching the Olympics.
“The older ones talked about running and high jumps in the Olympics, that they had seen it and they knew what to do,” she said.
They also copied some of the athlete’s traditions when it came time for medal presentations.
MEDAL WINNER:
Aaron Nilleson proudly
displays his Olympic memento. D4126-045
“We gave them all a gold medal and the older children held it in their mouths, I think they had seen that on TV,” she said.
“You could just see they love the act of running. We had the race set up for about 20 or 30 metres.
“There were five older children that didn’t want to stop and they kept running all the way to the Whakatane High School fence, which was quite a long way, probably 250 metres and then they ran it again,” she said.
As a result of the event’s popularity, Waiapu Kids planned to have regular sports days.
“We’re going to do it again. Instead of calling it an Olympic Day we’ll have a sports day. “We’ve done it in the past but this was so successful, we’ll do it more often,” she said.