Kids learn the ropes of making exercise fun

It's hard enough for kids to learn fitness is fun, part of a daily routine and -- heaven forbid -- good for them.

But instead of a lecture or running on the spot, imagine a group of youngsters jumping rope, waving their arms while chanting rhyming verses.

Now that's a lesson to remember.

This summer, 415 kids in lower-income housing developments across DuPage County got a taste of the game thanks to the 4-H program and a federal grant.

While it sounds a little chaotic, the rope tossing is in fact structured, as in double Dutch, the jump rope game that uses two ropes spinning in an egg-beater fashion.

Of course, kids had to learn how to skip a single rope first.

"We have a lot of 5-year-olds, and they need a little help with (knowing) when to jump," said Ellen Dassow, a college student and intern with the program.

The University of Illinois Cooperative Extension service works with neighborhood centers each summer, but this year staff decided to mix up their approach a little. They wanted to help kids learn new skills, but they also wanted to target an over-represented group among children who experience obesity.

"We know African American and Latino children are over-represented in that and are challenged even more," explained Christina Foster, a youth development educator with the extension service.

Teaching children that jumping rope is fun could have lasting benefits, they reasoned.

"We wanted something that was research-based and would last all year long," Foster said.

Although the 4-H Foundation grant paid to develop the program, it didn't cover salaries, and that's when DuPage County stepped in, explained Community Services liaison Pat Luster.

The county's existing grant from the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention aims to provide mentors in at-risk neighborhood. It paid for 26 high school and college students to work with 12 different centers in Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Addison, Hanover Park, West Chicago and Willowbrook.

Teams of interns went to each center twice weekly with the goal that each participating child would jump for 90 minutes over 3 days. They kept track of the time kids spent jumping, then added those minutes up weekly to compete against the other centers.

Perhaps the most surprising thing was how much the kids loved jumping rope, said intern Paige Luster, 19, of Naperville.

"They are just so excited about it," she said. "I think we really have gotten the point across that exercise is fun. These kids are just going crazy, they're jumping rope when we're gone for hours."

Teams started with the basics, just jumping rope individually, and then, if children were interested, they moved on to double Dutch, which has become increasingly difficult and choreographed over the years.

Some centers liked coming up with individual routines and others really took to the double Dutch concept. Either way, they all set goals of developing a routine that was taped at the conclusion.

The center that jumped the most cumulative average minutes per child at the end of the program took home a trophy. In the end, York Community Resource Center bagged the prize with an average of 101.3 minutes of jumping rope per week for its 32 kids.

Luster said she saw a difference that went far beyond tabulations.

One of the kids confided his one request for an upcoming birthday.

"He's going to ask for a jump rope," she said.