Did you know that kids need 60 minutes of physical activity every day? Here are some ideas of physical activities you can do with your kids over spring break! Oh, and you adults need 30 minutes of physical activity every day, so you can play too! Your whole family could log their activity minutes and see who can get the most minutes during the week. The winner could pick the movie on movie night or be excused from a chore.
Milk Jug Catch: Get 2 empty gallon milk jugs and with scissor cut the bottom 1 1/2 – 2 inches off. Flip it upside down, hold the handle and you’ve got a way to catch a ball. Grab a tennis ball or other type of ball and play catch. Kids can also use these by themselves to throw the ball up in the air and catch it with the jug. This activity is a great way for younger elementary aged kids to work on hand eye coordination and ball catching skills.
Personal Best: Time kids for about 30 seconds and challenge them to see how many reps they can do of different exercises such as jumping jacks, squats, hold a plank, fast feet, hopping on one foot, scissor legs etc. Kids love to be challenged this way and tend to not realize they are getting a great workout! You could also challenge them to see how many baskets they can shoot, or how many times they can throw a ball up and catch it without dropping it.
Sequence Touch: Either at the park or in the yard, give kids a sequence of things to run to and touch in order. For example, say “run to the tree, then the fence, then the swings and back to the side walk”. You can add more to the sequence to help them work on memory skills too. Two kids may like to do this together and race each other to see who can do it fastest.
Stop Watch: Time your child to see A) how far they can run in 40 seconds or B) How fast can you run from here to a set point in the yard. You could encourage them to practice this to see if they get faster.
Number Run: On the drive way, use side walk chalk to draw a large rectangle (20 paces or so long) and divide it into 6-8 even rows. Number the rows 1-8. Kids stand at the beginning by number 1 and you call out a sequence of numbers such as 4, 8, 2, 3, 1, 5, 6, 2, 7, 8, 1… and they have to run to the correct number row as quickly as they can.
Pinwheel Run: This is a great activity for younger elementary or preschool kids. Buy a pinwheel toy (very cheap at some retailers in the toy section) and let them run with the pinwheel to see it spin and spin around as they go faster and faster.
Get out and be active together, it’s a great way to connect, to role model healthy behavior and to have fun! Happy Spring!