GET UP, GET OUT, and GET FIT!!

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

GET UP, GET OUT, and GET FIT!!
If the few fleeting days of spring weather that we have experienced recently haven’t made you want to get off the couch, then you’d better check your heart beat. In downtown Elizabeth City walking and running traffic has picked up. Folks dressed in short sleeves have been strolling babies, taking pictures of the sights, enjoying their ice cream, riding bicycles, walking to lunch, and taking in the warm rays. Spring weather makes most people itch to get up and get out.

If you want to really experience spring fever go into any classroom on one of the warm days and watch the kids’ excitement and the teacher’s frustration at trying to keep them on task. Do you remember going home after school when you were young, grabbing a snack and rushing back out to play until supper time? Unfortunately that’s not the picture nowadays. Most students are in organized activities or hurry home to play video games until their parents come home.

According to recent studies, most children spend far too many hours involved with many forms of media and technology. Up to age 15, sixty-one percent of kids play video games every day. Girls are involved 5 hours per week while boys play an average of 15 hours per week.

As parents, grandparents, and educators we have to try a little harder to keep kids moving both in and out of school. Recess and physical education are not like they used to be. The philosophy now is to teach the kids that movement is part of the big picture of how to live a healthy life. My memory of P.E. classes where we did calisthenics for 30 minutes three times a week and were sore on the other days is a thing of the past, thank goodness. Students now learn about sports and activities that they can enjoy for a lifetime.

One of the definitions of the word “kinetic” is movement in response to stimulus. With that in mind, the Kinetic Kids exhibit at Port Discover will open on Saturday, April 2. The interactive exhibit and play space will feature three themed areas. The Scientist I Can Be exhibit will encourage children to assume the roles of health professionals and fosters this play with a variety of play acting costumes, toys, and tools. A Fitter Me space features an interactive and music-based exhibit that offers children guidance on healthy exercise activities. A Healthier Me exhibit includes a market and food preparation space that, by using play food, food labels, and utensils, teaches children how to make healthy food selections and control their portions.

We all want kids to keep that spring in their step well into the latter part of their lives. Showing them how to enjoy staying active and how to make healthy choices early in their lives is key to making that happen for them. We all need to get up, get out and get fit, and spring is a perfect time to start.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

How Does Your Garden Grow?
How does your garden grow? All over the country families are preparing to start a backyard garden this spring. This time it will be a victory garden of a different sort- a financial victory and maybe even a nutritional victory. The movement to eat locally grown products and buy locally is sweeping the country for many reasons.

The economic crisis the country is experiencing is a creature that has so many tentacles and is so far reaching that Americans are looking in every direction to improve the quality of their lives while saving money. People are valuing time spent together doing activities that strengthen the core of the family. Laboring in the garden together and then cooking and eating the bounty are activities that can bring family members closer while children learn. Even a small container garden will bring great rewards.

We are so fortunate to have access to locally grown food from farmers’ markets and vegetable stands and neighbors who share. A dollar spent in a community business does not leave the area and benefits many people. Vegetables purchased in some grocery stores often have spent days or weeks in storage and transit. Even organic food loses some benefits if it has to travel a long distance.

Local vegetables have been handled less, are safer, and retain their fresh taste plus most people just think they taste better. Many people only eat tomatoes in season because there is no comparison in taste with those purchased in the winter. Vitamins and minerals are retained more successfully when the produce is eaten soon after it is picked.

You might want to ask yourself how much eastern oil did it take to get the apple to me? Transporting goods makes us more dependent on costly foreign oil. Also, the effects of pollution produced by trucks carrying the products are harmful to the environment in general.

Eating locally produced honey can have even more benefits than many people may realize. Honey contains small amounts of pollen from the ecosystem in which it was produced. By eating local honey, you receive allergens which is almost like getting a vaccine in small doses which may reduce allergy symptoms.

On first Saturdays in the coming months kids can bring a 2 liter bottle to Port Discover and plant a vegetable to be transferred to their gardens later. AgCarolina Financial provides funding for Project Grow at the center. Programs at the center during March focus on National Nutrition Month. Angie and John Lamberson, registered dietitians and owners of Nutrition Pair, LLC presented a Kinetic Kids program “Eat Right with Color,” made possible by the Albemarle Hospital Foundation.

The health benefits of having your own garden or buying locally are numerous. Get out in the fresh air and sunshine this spring. Plant a garden or go to the Farmers’ Market in downtown Elizabeth City or buy produce at your favorite vegetable stand. Make it a family affair and experience the benefits first hand.

The Heart of the Family

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

The Heart of the Family
The heart of the family is nurtured at the dinner table in many ways. Physical and emotional patterns and attitudes of a lifetime are established and strengthened during mealtimes with people whom children love and who love them. Dinner together was an absolute must when my children were growing up, and they have carried on the tradition with their own young families. It truly was the heart of our family’s interaction about all kinds of subjects.

One of the topics for exploration in families could be a health plan for the entire family which could evolve through conversations that begin at mealtime. Knowledge about health, wellness and nutrition can be shared, explained, and modeled so that kids learn to live with intention concerning their future health.

Some of the heart tips suggested by Tara Winslow, RN, Heart Failure Educator at the Albemarle Hospital are:

• Your heart is a muscle that needs 60 minutes of exercise every day.


• Salt shouldn’t be added to food at the table.


• Fish has healthy oils that keep your heart healthy.


• Family walks will help everybody and can be fun too.


• Kids can help in the kitchen and learn many life skills.


• New foods should be tried often because taste buds change often.


• Baked foods are better than fried for your body.


• Kids should plan family meals and help to cook.


• Kids’ health is their responsibility too.

Awareness about health issues and skills for staying healthy can be taught at home and re-enforced through programs offered at school and at Port Discover. February is heart month and the Kinectic Kids program sponsored by the Albemarle Hospital Foundation presents events like “Heart Smart,” “Keeping the Beat,” and “Body Check” where kids learn about monitoring their heart rate, taking their blood pressure, and the importance of exercise. Many future quality of life determining decisions will be based on children’s knowledge of science and health.

A recent report of the Foundation of Child Development shows that 22% of children in the U.S. will live in poverty this year. That is the highest rate in decades and leaves families at risk for not being able to provide the nutrition needed for growing bodies and brains. The cost of food is rising dramatically and will likely get worse as the cost of oil increases. As time goes by, the emphasis on health and wellness will be even stronger. It is crucial that children be taught how to make good choices concerning their own health.

All agencies dealing with children must recognize that students’ physical, mental, social, emotional health are tied to academic performance. Educators are now paying more attention to the direct effect health has on test scores, but we should make sure that parents, health professionals, and educators collaborate to strengthen the well-being of the whole child. Only when we focus on the whole child will the problems such as low graduation rate, truancy, and poor performance be solved. At the heart of that effort is the education provided by the family at the dinner table.