15 Movement Activities to Do With Your Kids
“The best kind of parent you can be is to lead by example.” — Drew Barrymore
From boosting serotonin levels to improving posture, incorporating movement throughout our daily lives can be immensely beneficial to our wellbeing, especially while all of our kiddos are at home with us during school closures. Our little ones are watching us set a wellness example, and we as parents should show them that movement is fun! Plus, if we are being honest, we need to keep them active to keep them to help burn off some of their natural kid energy.
Here are 15 movement activities to do with your kids while you are on your Coronavirus break. Remember, the family that moves together stays together!
1. OBSTACLE COURSE
Use your backyard or house to create an obstacle course. Try this one:
- Run around three trees
- At the last tree, do 10 frog jumps
- Crawl under the trampoline
- Race to see who can reach the back door the fastest
- Use cardboard boxes as hurdles
2. TIC-TAC-TOE
On your driveway, set up sticks in a Tic-Tac-Toe grid pattern and grab two pieces of different colored chalk.
- Your child runs, skips, hops, or leaps to the grid and marks his/her symbol
- You must wait until your child returns back to the starting line before you run, skip, hop, or leap to the grid and mark your symbol
- Repeat as many times as you like!
3. MIRROR MATCH
- You complete 1 movement like a jumping jack
- Your child repeats your movement
- You complete the 1st movement and add on
- Your child repeats your movement
- How long can you go before forgetting a part of the sequence?
- Once you forget the sequence (or your child does), as the child to be the leader and see what silly things they can think up!
4. LIMBO
You can easily replicate this game by tying a string between two trees or using a long stick if you have multiple players.
5. BALL ROLL
Sit facing your child with a ball (stability ball, soccer ball, basketball, etc) in front of you, and open your legs as wide as you can comfortably sit.
- Pass the ball to the child and ask that they roll it back to you
- Increase the level of difficulty by asking the child to roll the ball to your right or left hand
- Increase the level by putting yourself (and kiddo if old enough...) in different positions such as plank & v-sit
6. DANCE PARTY
Just turn on some happy tunes (like this playlist from FIT4MOM) & shake it out, mama.
7. BALL PASS
While on your knees, ask your child to stand next to you.
- Pass the ball from the outside to the inside, asking your child to meet you in the middle
- Your child takes the ball and passes it to his outside
- Repeat the process seeing if you can gradually move further apart, and add a toss, not just a hand off
8. WATER BOTTLE BOWLING
Set up water bottles like bowling pins and use any ball to knock them down
9. BACKYARD RACING
Change this simple activity by pretending to be your favorite characters and animals. Think of movements like:
- How would frogs race?
- Mickey Mouse Roadhouse style (or Mario Kart)
- Who is the fastest horse?
- Run Backwards
- Skip!
- Jump Rope
- How would a gorilla race?
10. BALLOON BALL
Blow up a balloon and hit it around the house or yard without letting it touch the ground
11. ACTIVE SCAVENGER HUNT
The clues tell them what activity they must do to get to the next clue, like bear crawl, run backward, or bunny hop.
12. DUCK DUCK GOOSE
Do we need to explain...? Feel free to change this classic game by incorporating different movements like frog jumps, bear crawls, skips, and high knees.
13. LINE DANCING
Turn on the tunes and try these dance moves
14. BEDSHEET PARACHUTE
- You and your kids hold onto the end of a bedsheet.
- Work together to try to shake a small stuffed animal or ball off of the parachute!
15. HOPSCOTCH
Stuck inside? Use tape to layout your hopscotch area inside! Make this a math game by:
- Asking your kiddo to only jump to the squares that a even number.
- Now, try odd numbers.
- Can you jump to the square that is 1+3?
- What about 5-1?