The indoors can be a great (and safe) place for kids to do physical activities. It is important for young children to be active so that their overall well-being is maintained, and this keeps diseases at bay.
Before turning your living room into a miniature indoor gym, evaluate whether the space will accommodate the activities of your choice. If you live in an apartment, unfortunately it’s not possible for your children to jump and run around the house (unless your downstairs neighbors don’t mind).
Creative Indoor Exercise Ideas for Kids
The indoors can be a great (and safe) place for kids to do physical activities. It is important for young children to be active so that their overall well-being is maintained, and this keeps diseases at bay.
Before turning your living room into a miniature indoor gym, evaluate whether the space will accommodate the activities of your choice. If you live in an apartment, unfortunately it’s not possible for your children to jump and run around the house (unless your downstairs neighbors don’t mind).
Indoor exercise ideas for kids
1. Bean Bag Bowling
A bean bag is a small pouch that usually contains tiny plastic balls and cushioning. Bean Bag Bowling adds a challenging twist to the traditional mini-bowling game. The bag does not roll, so your kids must slide the bag towards the pins.
The catch is, they can’t simply throw the bag and hit the pins directly — create several goal posts along the lane and make sure that the bean bag slides under them, not over them.
2. Paper Planes and Hoops
This game combines paper planes with basketball hoops. If you don’t have basketball hoops, you can fashion a simple net using fruit nets, glued chopsticks and a dustpan with some weight put on it.
The goal is to shoot paper planes inside the hoop (or the net) from a distance away. Start from a short distance, and then increase the distance. If your kids love to see paper planes fly through the air, they’d love to practice controlling them too!
3. Juggling Balloons
Inflate at least 4 balloons, each with a unique color. The goal is to juggle 4 balloons and keep them from touching the ground. The challenge is to only touch the balloons in a particular order. Find a way to determine the order of the colors, then toss the balloon with the first color.
Then add the balloon of the next color, and eventually your kids have to juggle between 4 balloons and keep track of colors and their position from the ground. It will be chaotic, but fun.
4. Obstacle Course
This game requires you to prepare empty plastic water bottles or cans, strings, a balloon and a spoon. Your kids’ goal is to navigate through the obstacle course while balancing an inflated balloon on a spoon. Design a challenging course using the bottles and strings. In some places, create ‘trip wires’ (strings attached to two or more bottles), and in other places, create a narrow path guarded by lines of bottles or stringed bottles.
The more bottles and strings you use, the more challenging the course becomes. Give your kids a practice trial before giving them the balloon.
What other ideas would you suggest to create a great space for fun games at home? Comment below and let us know about it!
IPEKA Christian School
IPEKA is a Christian School in Jakarta and in many large cities throughout Indonesia. Learn more about our school by clicking About Us.
