What Are Safe Physical Activities For Toddlers?
Having enough exercise is absolutely necessary at any age. Children used to get enough exercise before smartphones and gaming consoles became their digital nannies. Nowadays, children prefer to spend their free time inside, stuck to a screen of any kind.
The benefits of exercise are well-known: it impacts our mental and physical health, is key in developing muscles and bones, gives us energy and reduces stress levels. While daycare services should promote physical activity through various games, educating your kid on the benefits of exercise is always the best way to inspire them to adopt their habit throughout their life.
With that in mind, we spoke to the Uptown Jungle Avondale crew to find out what exercises and physical activities are safe as well as fun for toddlers. We found that these activities incorporate fun with effort and work best if they spark your child’s interest.
You should aim to have your children physically active for at least 90 minutes every day. You should pre-plan some fun activities that will keep your child moving. Make sure they are fit for your child’s abilities to have them constantly engaged.
With that in mind, here are some activities you can try:
Row Your Boat
This is a great game that requires no equipment and is great for socialization as it requires a partner. The children should sit and face each other. With their feet touching they should hold hands and lean back and forth to the tune of “Row your boat”.
Build A Tower
This activity requires containers with lids, blocks or other objects your children can stack. Once you have the right equipment, have your child build a tower. Take turns with them to add blocks to their tower and see how tall they can make it.
Musical Hide And Seek
Play some catchy tunes on your phone and hide it away. Have your child or several children try to find the phone before the song ends. This is a great game to keep your kids moving and entertain them with music at the same time.
Throw Sponges
Wet some sponges and have your children throw them in a bin or any other container. Make a competition of how far they can throw different sponge sizes.
Mini Basketball
For toddlers, you can have the little ones roll a rubber ball back and forth between them. If your toddlers are a bit older, you can have them throw the rubber ball into a basket. Make sure you keep your toddlers from biting the balls. Also make sure the balls aren’t small enough to swallow.
Animal Crossing
To make this old game of imitating animals more interesting, make a fun concept out of it named after the popular video game. Have your children down on their hands and feet imitating different animals and racing from one point to another. You can have them walk on all fours like a bear, hop like a frog or walk with legs put together like penguins. Make sure you give them enough variety to make the game interesting and engage their entire body.
Snake
This game is ideal for parties or any gatherings like birthdays. Have the children form a line, putting their hands on the shoulders of the child in front of them. Have the first child lead the snake around the play area collecting treats or props. To make the game even more interesting, have the leader try to touch its tail by tagging the last child in line. This will have the entire snake moving faster.