It’s finally starting to get cold here in North Carolina. If it eventually snows, the kids will have a ball playing in the yard – sledding, building snow forts, making snowmen.
But for now, there is no snow. It’s rainy, muddy, and cold. Which means more time inside.
Instead of letting the kids zone out in front of a tech product, I want to make sure they’re staying moving and getting exercise indoors. I did some research online and came up with a lot of great ways to keep kids active in winter.
.Top 10 Ways to Keep Kids Active in Winter
Indoor Obstacle Course
Have the kids help build an obstacle course in the house. Use blanket tunnels to crawl through, pillows to jump over and broom handles to duck under. The kids may even want to add activity stations throughout the course, like jump roping, hula hooping or hopping on one foot.
Get Your Game On
The kids will have a ball moving while they play sports and challenge video games – getting exercise without even realizing it! Our favorite is Goji Play 2, which lets the kids challenge each other and themselves as they play. As the children move faster, their game characters perform better, so they always put their best efforts into it. We love it!
Follow the Leader
Have the kids take turns leading the others in a fun “follow the leader” parade. As they wind through the house they can crawl, jump, hop, skip and get silly as they move.
Freeze Dance
Kids love to dance so “Freeze Dance” is a great way to get them moving. When the music turns off, the kids stop dancing and when it comes back on, the kids start dancing again. Change up the dancing and freezing time lengths to keep the kids laughing and having fun.
Fill the Bucket
Stack balls or cups in the center of the room. Have the children all run to pick up an item and bring back to his/her bucket until the children have moved all of their items. Since I have three kids who are different ages, we make the challenge fair by adding one extra item to the middle child’s pile and 2 extra items to the oldest child’s pile.
Trash in the Yard
Divide the basement or playroom into two sides with a line of masking tape down the center. Put an equal number of children on each side and have a bag of balls, rolled-up socks, balloons, or even balls of wadded-up old newspaper ready nearby. When you pour out the objects along the middle line, the children run to get the objects and toss them onto the other side. The object is to keep the “trash” out of their “yard” and have fewer items on their side when the game ends.
Glow in the Dark Dancing
Similar to Freeze Dancing, but done in the dark. Have each child hold a glow stick or wear a glow neckace. When the music plays, all of the children dance around and when the music stops, they immediately freeze. Children who are self-conscious about dancing in front of others might enjoy dancing around in the dark instead.
Find an Indoor Playground
Whether it’s an indoor play structure and a bounce house facility, your kids will love to climb, run and jump. If you’d prefer not to pay an entrance fee, many restaurants and malls have indoor play areas that are free.
Exercise DVDs and Videos
Pop an exercise DVD in the player or find one for free on youtube and encourage the kids to join in. Whether they are actually doing the movements correctly or just being silly and joking around, they’re moving and having fun!
Toss Balloons
Blow up balloons and challenge the kids to keep them in the air. The kids can all work as a team with one balloon, alone as each tries to keep a single balloon in the air, or all juggle several at a time to stop any balloons from touching the ground.
Want to get your kids moving this winter? Try the fun games on Goji Play 2!
Read more about Goji Play 2 and #GetUpAndGojiPlay! See my other post about how Goji Play 2 works.
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This blog post was sponsored by Blue Goji but the opinions are completely my own based on my experience.
You have some great ideas here! My kids and I play a lot of Just Dance on the Wii these days! It is so cold and muddy here! We walk and ride bikes on days that we can, which isn’t as often as I would like.