In order to create a scale for measuring child health in accordance with the content of the “Childcare guidelines”，“Course of study for Kindergarten”，“Course of study for Centers for early childhood education and care”, understanding the health status of children today and carrying out health education are important to help foster collaboration between the child’s educational environment, home, and local community. The objective of this study was to develop a scale for measuring child health and wellness, and to investigate differences in child health between genders (boy/girl) and between grades (lower, middle, and upper). A total of 234 children (108 boys, 126 girls) from seven nursery schools in Toyama Prefecture were used as targets for analysis. In terms of survey items for assessing child health, after conducting exploratory factor analysis, the following five factors and a total of 35 items were extracted: “lifestyle security,” “a healthy daily rhythm,” “interest in health,” “active play,” and “healthy eating.” Factors scores, after carrying out two-factor analysis of variance, were as follows: significant primary effects between grades were found for “lifestyle security” and “active play”, and in survey items, boys in lower grades scored higher than girls for the items “outdoor play” and “friendly play with peers.” Furthermore, boys scored higher than girls across all grades for “likes running”. From the above results, it is possible that gender differences may affect the ways in which children engage in and conceive of outdoor and active play. In light of this finding, we conclude that guidance that enables girls to spend more enjoyable time outside is necessary.

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There are concerns about children’s physical and mental health due to their busy schedules. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of “default living activities (DLA)” and “leisure activities (LA)” on “unidentified complaint (UC)” and “self-image (SI).” The participants were 993 students from 3rd to 6th grades from 12 elementary schools in Japan (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba, Saitama and Shizuoka prefectures). All surveys were conducted from February to March 2018. The anonymous questionnaire included questions on “DLA” (meal/toilet/bath time, study time including homework, school preparation time, cram school including lessons, bedtime), “LA” (outdoor playtime, indoor playtime, time spent chatting with family, blanked time), “UC” (malaise, low-grade fever, headache, chest pain, nausea, abdominal pain), and “SI” (I have a happy life every day, I am happy with myself, I think I have my good point, I am eager to try things even if I do not know whether it works, I have bright hopes for my future, I think I am happy when I am 40 years old, I think it is fulfilling when I am with my family). The potential correlation shows from both DLA and LA to both UC and SI from the questionnaire responses was analyzed by structural equation modeling. The results showed that both DLA and LA were inversely corelated to UC and positively to SI. Additionally, LA shows stronger correlation with UC and SI than DLA. Therefore, we concluded that it was necessary to enhance LA to reduce UC and improve SI in elementary school students.

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This study aims to clarify the relationship the amount of physical activity between children’s exercise play in the morning and the achievement rate of daily recommended physical activity. We found that the amount of physical activity during morning exercise with the intensity LC3-9 was 9-13 minutes; LC4-9, was 7-10 minutes; LC7-9, 2-4 minutes; and the number of steps were 1,600-2,200 . The target number of steps to achieve the recommended physical activity time of 60 minutes was 12,300 steps in LC3-9, including daily activities, and the achievement rate depended on the frequency of morning exercise (High frequency group (a) ＞ Medium frequency group (b) ＞ Low frequency group (c), p＜.001). The target number of steps with medium intensity or higher was 15,300 steps in 60 minutes,　the target steps with high intensity was 15,700 steps in 25 minutes. The achievement rate was varid with the frequency of exercise.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency that parents and children engage in physical playing together and to clarify the relationship between frequency and mental and physical condition of children. The subjects were 209 children who were enrolled in A Children's School in Okayama: 63 children in the 3-year-old class, 74 children in the 4-year-old class, and 72 children in the 5-year-old class. To reveal their frequency of physical playing in parents and children together and the physical and mental condition of the children, a questionnaire survey was conducted. The frequency of physical playing between parents and children was categorized into lower groups (“1. Never”, “2. 1-2 times per month”), medium groups (“3. Once a week”), and high groups (“4. 2-3 times per week”, “5. 3-4 times per week”, and “6. Almost every day”). The mental and physical condition of children was categorized into the emotion condition, physical condition. The emotion condition, physical condition was categorized into bad condition groups that marked “Always” or “Sometimes 1-3 times per week”, health condition groups that marked “Seldom 1-3 times per month” or “Never”. As a result, the respondents of “Once a week” that the frequency of physical playing with parents together marked the highest percentage 90 (47.4%). The frequency of physical playing between parents and children was categorized into 67 (35.3％）of lower groups, 90 (47.4％）of medium groups, and 33 (17.4％ ) of high groups. In the emotion condition, the health condition groups was 77 (40.5％ ), the bad condition groups 108 (56.8％ ). In the physical condition, the health condition groups was 170 (89.5％ ), the bad condition groups 17 (9.0％ ). There were significant differences in the frequency that parents and children engage in physical playing together and the emotion condition (P ＜ 0.05). In the emotion condition of the high group of the frequency of physical playing between parents and children, the health condition group percentage (24.7％ ) was significantly higher than the bad condition group percentage (11.1％ ). There were not significant differences in the physical condition and the frequency that parents and children engage in physical playing together. These results suggest that the possibility that the frequency of physical playing between parents and children has relevance to their emotion condition in preschool children. Therefore, it was considered that families that have less physical playing between parents and children need to have time to actively communicate with their children in their daily life for their children's health.

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The study is based on F. Froebel's book “The Human Education” (1826). The purpose of this paper is to re-consider and re-examine the subject by projecting it onto childcare, upbringing, and education in Japan. In this paper, we discussed contemporary meanings of “food education”, “clothing”, “body image”, and “embodiment of language” in terms of the relevance with “health” field in the childcare contents. As a result, it was found that some research and practice of modern childcare from the perspective of early childhood education, which Froebel emphasized, have been actively conducted while some of them are not the subject of discussion. First of all, research on food has been very active in recent years. It is considered that factors from modern social background such as satiety or family environment significantly influence. However, at this stage, the relationship between eating content and human development to which Froebel refers is not the subject of research. In addition, the research on the relationship between nutrition education and mind needs to be promoted based on scientific empirical data. Next, regarding the relationship between childcare and clothing, Froebel considered the physical and spiritual nature of children that are effected clothing. On the other hand, at the present day, the form of basic lifestyle and safety have become important points. At last, “body image” have not gotten attention as the subject of research for childcare. We can indicate that there is still room to consider educational effect on children on the subject of “consciousness of own body” and “funny faces”.

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