7 Ways for kids to burn energy indoors
Fun Indoor Activities for Kids
Kids will love these 7 ways to burn energy when they’re stuck in inside. Whether it’s a rainy day, snow day, or whatever reason you’re staying indoors these are great physical activities to get toddlers, preschoolers, and even older kids moving.
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Any parent of young kids knows that a toddler or preschool age child with too much energy is a mischevious child. But, it can be hard to burn off that energy when you’re stuck indoors. Use these 7 ideas to get those kids moving for their physical and mental well-being.
Adapt these games to your child’s abilities or let them invent variations all their own. They have big imaginations and it’s a great time to let those imaginations run wild!
1 – Floor is lava
Play the floor is lava. But do a variation if you’re like me and don’t want to encourage your kids to climb on things or walk on pillows. Make a bunch of red circles (those are the lava) and then choose a second color like blue, green, purple and those are the safe areas to walk.
Create your own pathways across the living room, bedroom, or playroom.
2 – Red light, Green light
You might remember red light, green light from when you were a kid. The goal here is just to get kids moving, not to actually be competitive so don’t worry if someone forgets to freeze. You can also use yellow light to mean move slowly and green light to move quickly.
Take turns being the one to call red light, and green light. If you don’t have multiple kids you’ll probably have to play too. My 3-year-old will play it alone with us calling the commands though. She runs back and forth across our living room until she gets out of breath and quits.
3 – Yoga
Do some indoor yoga! Yoga is great as there are poses for every skill level including ones kids can do. Have fun moving, stretching, and working on balance.
Here are 11 animal themed yoga moves perfect for toddlers and preschool age kids.
4 – Indoor obstacle course
Create your own indoor obstacle course. It can include:
- tasks to complete
- Patterns to follow made with painters tape on the floor.
- Hopscotch made with pieces of paper.
- Items to hop over
- Ball to throw into a container
- Scoop all of an item such as pom poms or beans into a larger container
See how fast you can go and then try to improve your time. I’d suggest including 4-6 different activities if you can.
5 – Reusable bag or pillowcase race
Grab an old pillowcase or a reusable bag for smaller kids, it’s a perfect height for toddlers and more preschoolers. Help them climb inside and then let them hop around. You can even stage your own potato sack race of sorts.
You can even use this as part of your obstacle course if you have enough space!
6 – Play Simon Says
Play a game of Simon says. Once person gives commands and the other person has to do that actions. Idea for things to call out are:
- Jump up and down
- spin in a circle
- touch your toes, head, nose, etc.
- Find a green colored item
- Act like a monkey, dog, cat, etc.
- Run to the couch (or other location) and back as fast as you can
7 – Have a Dance Party
Have your very own living room dance party. This one is great for a quick way to get the wiggles out. Use a cd you have, itunes, spotify, etc.
I recently discovered that if you’re an Amazon Prime member it includes access to prime music! I was able to find the Trolls soundtrack and save myself paying $20 for it. Which is great since this week life is all about Frozen 2 instead!
Bonus – YouTube Videos
Want to get them moving without requiring work from you? Search “brain breaks” or “kids bop dance along” on YouTube.
Brain breaks come in all the kids favorite themes like Bluey or Elsa.
Just make sure you stay close as commercials will pop up and many of the videos are short. You don’t want kids using YouTube without help as you never know what might come up.
Do you have a favorite indoor energy burning activity you do with your kids? Please share it below! Follow us on Instagram for more craft and activity ideas.
