Bulgaria: Remote Learning and Sedentary Mode of Life, How to Make Children Exercise

If the lockdown is extended, physical education teachers and sports professionals will have to put to use all their creativity skills and imagination and think of exercise games for children, said for Horizont Before Noon radio show Joanna Dochevska, Chair of the Management Board of the Association for the Development of Bulgarian Sport.

 After the restrictive measures were changed in mid-December, all individual sports are currently possible. Team sports are allowed for persons over 18 years of age, and as for the younger ones, only card-indexed athletes of the sports federations are allowed to practice them, Dochevska explained.

 Bulgarian children top the rankings in obesity and lack of physical activity and, according to the World Health Organization, it is extremely important that a child exercises at least 60 minutes a day. During online learning, children should make at least elementary exercises at breaks, she added.

Since the first lockdown in the spring of 2020, the interest in sports clubs grew, but later has faded with the more stringent restrictions in the autumn, Joanna Dochevska also said.

 "One of the major problems we have had for years is the personal example of parents." she added

In the first days of the new year, the tourist center in Pamporovo launched the initiative "Getting started in cross-country skiing with Ekaterina Dafovska". The aim of the event is to promote cross-country skiing among both young and older people in Bulgaria.

In these times, we need to go outside as much as we can, the Olympic biathlon champion explained reasons for her initiative.

  The most important thing in ski lessons of Ekaterina Dafovska is to teach children "to enjoy nature first, breathe fresh air", because...