Thousands of schools embrace Natick mom's exercise program for kids

Between school and other activities, many children are not meeting the recommendation of 60 minutes a day of exercise.

A mother from Natick had an idea to help kids reach that goal.

The program Kathleen Tullie created has now spread to 3,000 other schools around the country.

It’s called Build our Kids Success.

“We are making them sit for 6-8 hours a day during the school day, so I decided to start my own program at my kid’s school in Natick, in hopes of bringing it to that one school,” Tullie said.

BOKS is structured to give kids an opportunity to exercise before school in a way that doesn’t require a lot of special equipment or adult supervision.

“We hear testimonials about how attendance is up, kids are more focused in the classroom, they are eager to get to sleep at night, so they can show up at school the next day," Tullie added.

Students at the Josiah Quincy School in Boston’s Sound End agree.

“It helps me get ready when I am actually learning, because when I wake up I am super tired, but here it gets me up and stuff," fourth grade student Kyle Tan said.

“It keeps my body healthy," Olivia Ryan said. "Overall, it just makes me more happy and energetic.”

While comments like that are encouraging, Dr. Elsie of Tavares, of Massachusetts General Hospital, wanted to measure the real impact of BOKS.

“What we found was that a dose of BOKS in the morning for these children on average led to improvements in their weight, improvements in their body mass index,” Tavares said.

As other studies find more young people experiencing depression and other behavioral issues, Tavares believes exercise can improve a child’s sense of well-being.

“Participation in physical activity is actually beneficial for our social and emotional wellness, for brain health, for our sense of happiness, for our attention, for our mood," Tavares said.

Tavares plans to do additional research on how BOKS improves the mental health of young people.

The beauty of BOKS, according to physical education teacher Tom Levett, is that it doesn’t cut into class time and it’s pretty simple to run.

“They show a variety of ways to get kids active with limited to no equipment, limited to no space," Levett said.

BOKS is meant to be run by just a few volunteers.

There's more information on how to start a program available here.

There is no charge for children to participate in BOKS.

Cox Media Group