It’s easy for children to become “couch potatoes” especially now that we are at home all day. We need to encourage physical activities and movement because they need it to practice their motor skills, strengthen their heart, lungs, and muscles and keep obesity at bay. See 5 ways to keep kids physically active at home during a lock down.
1. Send them on errands round the house.
No, we’re not talking about the typical Nigerian Parents shout of “Ola, pass me the remote” when it’s right beside you. Rather, send them on errands that will make them stand up from one point of the house to another. Remember not to overdo it, you need to move around too, lol.
2. Exercise!
Let your kids join in on your exercise routine. Include a few family friendly exercises in your daily routine and let them join you. Make it fun! Younger kids will love to stretch like a cat, run like a tiger, or jump like a kangaroo while older kids will enjoy a dance routine exercise. Good old skipping is also an option.
3 Cook together
Let them join you in the kitchen. Not only because it is fun but because they get to move around while grabbing objects or ingredients for you. It’s a win win situation
4 Play Games
There are games you can play while sitting down, we are not talking about those ones. Play games that make the kids move around and expend a lot of energy. See family friendly games you can play below. Get ready to have a good laugh!
20 Questions
20 Questions is a super fun game for chatting, having kids listen and think, and practicing questioning skills. Have an array of pictures of both family members and celebrities, this can either be on your phone or printed out as picture cards. Each player takes a turn grabbing a card from the pile/picking up the phone. The player holds the card/phone up on his or her forehead so that all the other players can see who or what is on the card but the player cannot. Then the player gets to ask 20 yes or no questions to figure out who is on his/her card.
Freeze
Choose some of your kids’ favourite tunes and ask them to dance until the music stops. When it does, they have to freeze in whatever position they find themselves in – even if they have one leg up. To make the game more challenging, ask the kids to freeze in specific poses: animals, shapes, letters or even yoga postures. Toddlers in particular love this game.
Charades
This game is simple enough to play for all ages, but everyone will have a great time filled with fun and laughter! Choose a theme and write out words or names related to the theme on pieces of paper. Scrunch them up and put in a bowl or cap. Each player picks a word out of the hat and they have 60 seconds to act out the word while all other players attempt to guess what it is. You can get some fun charade words here
Hot Lava
Kids also love playing hot lava, something easy enough to do with a handful of cushions or tea towels on the ground that you have to jump to in order not to burn in the pretend fiery pit (the space that is not covered)
5. Chores!
Games might make the house look like a war room but the good thing is the kids can help clean up after. They can also have designated chores they do around the house everyday. Can chores teach responsibility? Find out here
How would you prefer to keep your children busy during this period? Share with us
