Your active child : how to boost physical, emotional, and cognitive development through age-appropriate activities

This is a guide to protecting children under eight years old from becoming either lethargic or high-strung.

Today, many children fall into one of two categories, neither of which is healthy: one group is almost entirely inactive, and the other spends most of their "free" time in highly structured, overly stressful competitive sports that are age-inappropriate.

As an expert on children's movement and development, and as a consultant to the Children's Television Workshop, Gymboree, YMCA of the USA, and other groups, Rae Pica shows how the right kinds of activities increase children's enjoyment of physical activity for a lifetime.

With straight talk on what works, what doesn't, and why, Pica teaches parents: why raising a Super Kid is as dangerous as raising a Couch Potato; unique activity ideas and the benefits of "cooperative activities"; how to recognize when a child is too active or not active enough; why competitive sports programs aren't the answer; and much more.