If you live in a climate that sees a lot of snow or rain during a good portion of the year, it can be difficult to make sure your kids get enough exercise when you don’t have access to a large gym every day, and especially during times when these types of places are closed. Yet daily exercise – especially when your kids don’t have recess and lunchtime play periods like at regular school where kids spend a good portion of their time running and playing – is crucial to a healthy childhood. Here are some activities you can do indoors to get your child’s heart going.
Indoor Bowling
You don’t need to buy a plastic bowling set (although you can sometimes find them relatively inexpensively during the spring and summer months), simply use empty pop bottles and a ball you have in the house. You can wrap the bottles in paper and let your kids decorate each one. Have a starting line and a bowling line, so your kids get a bit of a run before letting the “bowling ball” fly. This can be done in a playroom or even a long hallway in your house, if you have the doors closed, the sides of the hallway can act as a blocker so your kids will almost always get at least one or two pins down, as long as the ball has enough speed to get there!
Beach Ball Dribbling
Use a beach ball for your kids to practice passing a ball, dribbling, even hitting the ball off their head. A beach ball isn’t as hard as a soccer ball, so you don’t need to worry about your kids hurting their bodies, and as long as you have a fairly clear area, the ball shouldn’t break anything that happens to be in the way.
Balloon Boingo
Blow up balloons then make the challenge to keep as many balloons in the air at once without touching the ground. This will require your kids to run around depending on where the balloons happen to float.
Sockball Fight
Too cold to go outside in the snow? Or rarely get snow where you live? Raid the sock drawer and ball up socks in single socks for adult socks or in pairs for kids socks, then have an indoor sockball fight. If you have enough socks in the end, drop them in the same area and your kids can try making sock angels too!
Yoga
There are plenty of yoga videos for kids, or you can do your own yoga routine and incorporate your kids into it.
There are plenty more activities you can customize to be played indoors to keep your homeschooled kids active and healthy.
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