My son is four and a half and has expressed some interest in martial arts. So far, the only sports classes he has done are swimming lessons, which were hit or miss in terms of how willing he was to participate. (Once he actually got in the pool--which was sometimes a struggle--he did very well in following instructions and mastering new skills.)

As far as martial arts goes, there's not much available for kids his age in our area. Our choices are:

• Karate, a program for ages 4-6 at a local branch of a national chain.
• "Kinderkickers" general martial arts program for 3- to 6-year-olds, at a YMCA in a neighboring town (not so convenient).
• Family judo at the YMCA in our town (more convenient) but we'd have to wait until he turns 5 in the spring.

Anyone have any thoughts, recommendations, or experiences to relate?

On these snowy days, I breathe an extra word of thanks to my son's preschool teachers. Imagine lining up 15 or 20 kids, two or three times a day, and suiting them all up in boots, snow pants, parkas, mittens, and hats, then shuffling them outside! It's all part of their regular activity, and I'm so glad they appreciate the kids' need to play outside often, no matter the weather.

Unfortunately, not every preschool, daycare, or child care setting has the same dedication to active play. Three new studies point out some of the challenges:

• Particularly in family child care homes, toddlers and preschoolers watch a lot of TV--sometimes more than 2 hours a day.
• Some children come to school without appropriate shoes, clothing, or outerwear, preventing them (and sometimes their classmates too) from playing outside.
• Many child care centers have no policies in place to encourage physical activity. The American Academy of Pediatrics has just released a set of best practices for centers to adopt.

Does your child's preschool encourage active play? How?

Here's a timely follow-up to Tuesday's post on kids' cereals: General Mills announced yesterday that it will reduce, to single-digit-per-serving levels, the amount of sugar in its cereals advertised to kids. By the spring, all kids' cereals will have 11 grams of sugar per serving or less; further reductions and adjustments will then be made to bring grams per serving below 10.

General Mills cereals advertised to kids include Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, and Trix. "The reduction ... doesn't represent perfection but it represents improvement," Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, told the Associated Press.

Miller Donnelly has a message for sports parents: Let kids be kids! When he was nine, the boy from Ontario wrote a speech for school about how wearing his hockey helmet magically transformed him from a kid into a young adult, at least in how spectators responded to him: "The minute I put on my magic helmet and step on the ice, adults treat me much differently. They yell at me, they curse me and they call me names. They treat me like I have been playing hockey for 15 years and get mad when I make a mistake," Miller wrote.

His uncle wanted to see the speech, so Miller's parents helped him record it and upload it to YouTube. The rest, as they say, is digital-age history, as the video went viral. Hundreds of thousands of viewers have now watched the video online, and it's been played in sports arenas before games too; Miller was also featured on a major Canadian TV news show. Nice job, Miller!