One of the most amazing things about children is how much energy they have. Every nap they take seem to fill them up with enough power to run around for hours, jump and skip, climb up and down the stairs, draw and build stacks and play pickaboo and many more things which make most parents tired just thinking about!
Toddler energy can be fun, but it can also be tough to keep up with sometimes. If you’ve got a high-energy toddler at home, you already know the importance of physical games. The problem is when they start repeating themselves. So for all you exhausted parents, we’ve compiled a list of 5 ways to help your toddler spend some excess energy!
#1 Surprise Exercise
Yelling out exercises at your kids is not the best way to spend an afternoon (unless you’re practicing your PA teacher skills.) One way to make it fun is to bring in the element of lottery. Come up with some fun sport exercises that your child likes – you can even brainstorm them with the child – and write them down on small notes. How about running once around the house? Or skipping 10 times? Or hopping on one leg to the end of the yard and back? Next, fold the pieces and put them inside a hat. Now you can take turns with them picking out the next activity!
#2 Hip, Hip, Hulay!
Do you have a couple of hula hoops at home? These can be used in a myriad of fun ways. Once you’ve exhausted the basics (spinning it around the body) you can move on to other options. You can place a few hoops on the floor in varying distances and have the child jump between them – this is a good test of how far they can jump! And how about making it even harder – can you remember where the next hoop is and jump to it without looking? Another option is to throw it in the air and try and catch it, either each one by themselves or tossing the hoop between you and the kid. It’s not as easy as it seems!
#3 The Real Relay Race
The relay race is as classic as it is simple… The only problem is that it requires multiple children to be effective. But you can always change the rules around to fit to your own family. With one child, you can do a back-and-forth relay race: run to the wall, fetch object X, bring it back to you and run to fetch another. You can put a box of pom poms on the other end to make it interesting and colorful. Another cool idea is to make the object a box of crayons: see how many colors your child can fetch back within, say, one minute – and then make a drawing using only those colors!
#4 Tiny Dancer
Do you and your child love dancing? How about learning a routine together? This can be both fun and a bonding opportunity. There are plenty of online dancing videos for children which you can watch and learn together. Or how about doing it with TuTiTu?? Our Animals series features animation videos with animals singing and dancing their special Animal Song dance! You can watch it and practice it together – and then dance every time you watch the video! (Dance begins 3:32).
#5 Baby-Formula 1
If your toddler can ride a tricycle, they might really enjoy a racecar-style obstacle course. Mark the starting point with a nice banner and create a challenging and fun route for them. You can put objects in their way so they have to navigate their way around them, you can place things they have to hi-five on their way, and even make certain areas where they have to stop riding and get off the tricycle to do some kind of challenge (put a number of pom poms inside a box for instance) and only then can they continue the race. This is something they can practice again and again to make their own record time!
Got any more fun ideas for physical toddler activities?
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