Top Tips for Keeping Children Active at Home

In order to keep children active at home you will need to get inventive. Top tips for staying active at home can involve things such as playing various active games such as hide and seek, doing online home workouts and even getting involved in chores and housework.

Whilst at school children will be much more active than when they are home, from PE classes to playtime they will be constantly moving about. However, now they are at home they will likely be getting much less exercise. It is important not to let yourself get too concerned with this, as with the current situation it is hard however luckily there are plenty of ways you can include activity and exercise in the daily routine; from playing games to helping with the housework.

Hide and Seek

Hide and seek will likely be a fond memory from most of our childhoods and luckily this fun game can be played both indoors and out. On days when the weather is nice, you can extend this game to the garden if you have one to allow a little bit of larger area to play. Make sure to set boundaries if you have spaces or rooms you don’t want the kids hiding in but other than that give them free reign to run around. If you are unfamiliar with how to play; one person covers their eyes and counts aloud to 10, 20 or 30 whilst the other people hide (the more in house to play, the merrier) and then we they have finished counting they will search for the others. The last to be found then counts for the next round.

Dancing

This is a great one for kids who already love to dance and also for those who would like to start. There are a few different ways to do this. On YouTube there are a plethora of dance classes for kids, ranging from Zumba to freestyle. Strictly come dancing champion Oti Mabuse has started teaching virtual classes on YouTube for both adults and children to follow.

Alternatively, you could host a dance party for the whole family, or just the kids. Get some snacks and pop or juice and put some of their favourite songs on; why not stick to a certain theme each time? Turn the lights off and have a party!

Online Classes

As with the online dance classes, there are plenty of online workouts! The Body Coach, Joe Wicks is hosting PE classes every weekday morning at 9am for children to get their daily dose of PE that they may be missing not being in school. The classes are 30 minutes long and really easy to follow along with; great for the kids and adults can get involved too!

Get Them Involved in The Housework

What better way to get the kids to exercise and get your chores done for the day than to get them involved in the housework. We all know how much housework can make you work up a sweat so get everyone involved to help keep them active. To make it a little more fun why not set a challenge; who can tidy their room the fastest? Or who can polish the furniture quicker?

Tasks like this will both yourself get your tasks done and keep the kids active and entertained.

Crab Walking Challenge

Anything with challenge in the title is a great one for competitive kids. This game is pretty simple; get your kids to walk like crabs. With their hands and feet on the floor and stomach facing the ceiling get them to see how far they can walk. Set challenges, who can walk the whole diameter of one room, then the whole house and so on. If your kids are younger and can’t hold the position have them squat and sidestep like a crab instead; this is still a good workout!

Build an Obstacle Course

Set up an obstacle course around your house that the kids have to complete in order. If you time them individually you can see who is the fastest to complete; or, it can be just for fun. It can include anything you like; from a bean bag throw, egg and spoon race, step ups or ladder walk (if you have this in your house). There are also things you can do with what you already have, who can run the stairs the fastest and so on.

Don’t worry about the clean up of any of these games as the clean up can just serve as another fun activities for the kids!