I was sent the book Good Kids Bad Habits: The Real Age Guide To Raising Healthy Children to review some time back. I read the book a while ago but hadn’t had a chance to put my thoughts on to paper or to the keyboard.

Two sentences from the introduction of the book hooked me in and I knew that I needed to read this book once I had read and absorbed what those sentences were saying. Here is that excerpt,

“Kid’s today have developed so many bad health habits that they’re facing heart attacks in their 30s. Experts predict they’ll be the first generation of children to have a lower life expectancy than their parents“.

Those two sentences should be enough for anyone to want to read this book and see what it’s all about even if you already think you are doing a good job with your kids.
This book steers you in the right direction as to what healthy habits and choices your child should be making no matter what the age. Of course, most of what is in the book is common sense but it’s a great book nonetheless.

It’s a great book because you can find out how well you and your child are doing healthwise by doing the Real Age test provided in the book.

I did the test for my 6 year old son and he did surprisingly well.His overall score was an 8. Sure, I knew we were already doing pretty well on teaching our son good healthy habits but I realized we weren’t doing so swell with the physical activity part during the cold months.

When it gets cold here in our neck of the woods, it’s hard to get outside and there are no resources or places to take your kids to let them run around, play, or exercise. There’s not even a playland or anything like that. Someone needs to build one here in our small town for the sake of our children’s health. Public schools aren’t much better. Most of them only provide 1 hour per week of physical education classes. My son isn’t in school yet and when he does start, it seems like we will have less time to be physical. I guess I need to start getting more creative with physical activities. I’m thinking of buying him the Dance pad for his Playstation for cold weather and when he can’t go outdoors to get his exercise in every day.

So now, thanks to the Good Kids Bad Habits book, we know what habits to work on for our son which are more physical activities during the inclement weather and better teeth health. I admit to not making my 6 year old son floss frequently but it will become part of our routine very soon.

Overall, this book is an excellent resource for parent to have. It’s also a good way to measure how well you are doing with instilling healthy habits for different age ranges as your child grows. I’ll keep this one handy for a while.

You can purchase Good Kids Bad Habits here and I totally recommend it to all parents who want the best for their kids.