Author Topic: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?  (Read 38268 times)

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MummyToBen

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #30 on: January 06, 2010, 13:22:37 pm »
I have found the library a life-saver on horrible-weather days...Ben's still crawling so he loves going up and down the aisles, pulling books off the shelves and putting them back on (that's my bit unfortnately!) etc.  They've got a children's area with a couple of toys in it and it's ideal.  We live in a tiny flat so it's great to find somewhere free where he can burn off some energy when we can't get outside. 

Offline Mom to M&M

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #31 on: January 22, 2010, 14:22:54 pm »
I started this thread back when DD was pretty young - good to see it's still going!

I was thinking about this today actually. DD (now 4.5) has been waking once most nights. Last night she literally ran in circles around our house for 10 minutes. Not sure if it's definitely related but she did sleep 11.5 hours last night without a peep LOL!
Karen: Proud Mama to Marisa (8-11-05) and Matthew (6-5-09) and happily married to my best friend and love of my life since 10-13-01

Offline nwmm

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #32 on: January 22, 2010, 20:00:29 pm »
mini tramp - They are  not  very expensive at all.  You can take the legs off and slide it under something or behind  the sofa

blow up swimming pool filled with balls = ball pit

Hullaballo

Twister Hopscotch -  Kind of cheaply made, but it was a  gift

gym scooters  -  They ones you sit on and someone can pull you along

spoon and egg game  -  walk across the room with a spoon   and  hope your plastic egg doesn't fall  off.  We have  one  with a  bean b ag yolk inside, but you  can use the  plastic easter eggs

tunnels

tents

make a fort with sheets and pillows

parachute

Red Light Green Light game

Mother  May I? or Simon Says

We play parade  - use  flags and instruments

dress up

my lo like  to get out their  summer  hats and  try them on, look in the  mirror, giggle, get  out the  sun glasses, put those on, look i n the mirror, giggle.   This can go on for 20+ minutes.
will be  back with more
« Last Edit: January 22, 2010, 20:20:14 pm by nwmm »

Offline Tweakster

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #33 on: January 22, 2010, 20:08:39 pm »
With our 10 mth old we are doing up the stairs, down the stairs.  He likes to climb now.  And doesn't seem to get that bored with it.  I also rotate the rooms and toys.  So we spend some time in the living area, some time in the office, some time in his room, some time in my room while I am getting ready.  Each place has different toys to play with.
The tweaking never stops!

Offline malibu_nikkus

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #34 on: December 11, 2011, 03:26:37 am »
MATTRESS!!!!!!!!! Bring your big or little (cot size) mattress(preferably inner spring) into the living area jump on it.  My kids like to jump off the couches and drive onto the mattress (extra energy exerted from climbing onto couch!).

Also, push two couches almost together and put a mattress over the top and drap blankets down to make doors.  My boys love this tunnel idea...they play for ages running walkers, prams etc through it!





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Offline saylorblue

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #35 on: January 03, 2012, 14:22:58 pm »
The mattress idea is great! Might have to try that one.

We bring DS's bike inside. It's a Strider Sports bike (http://www.stridersports.com/) and doesn't have pedals that could mark up the walls. The kids do laps round and round the house. This thread reminded me that I need to bring it in for the winter!

Offline LouiseV

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #36 on: February 19, 2012, 05:17:56 am »
Some things I've been doing with my 11 month old since he was about 7 months: (so hard to find ideas for babies!!!!) that won't cost much:

Well cooked and cooled long spaghetti to play with

A bowl on a towel and little jugs or his bath toys

A collection of toilet rolls and paper towel rolls to blow through and roll small balls down (supervised!)

Small jars with different things in them to shake

A large towel and a large bowl of uncooked rice and small cups to scoop it with

Emptying a bottom kitchen drawer and filling it with 'surprise' things such as a packet of pasta or my measuring spoons and wait for him to find it (only one not baby proofed!)

Putting sticks into the washing basket - he can poke them through the sides

Pegs and the indoor clothes horse - I cover the bottom rungs in pegs for him to pull off

Plain yoghurt on his high chair with tiny drops of food colouring dotted over - as he moves his hands through it colour appears and he can draw with it

A bowl of coloured water and little bowls of plain water (supervised!!!!)He gradually turns all the water bowls coloured (varying shades)

Cooked peas on a mirror on the floor

A box of metal objects and a box of wooden objects (found around the house!) to explore

First baby boy born March 2011 :)

Offline stardust599

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #37 on: May 16, 2012, 19:08:57 pm »
Depends what your boundaries are ;-)

I have a very spirited (and touchy!) toddler and she NEEDS lots of physical activity to burn off energy and release stress or she's just unhappy and doesn't sleep well!

We do climbing - LO loves climbing up on the sofa then I help her "jump" off.  We play hide and seek, monster/chasing games, she gets in her Little Tykes car and "drives" while I push her around our house (okay we live in a tiny 2 bedroom house but still have fun up and down the hallway and round the rug in the living room).  We also do dancing and twirling and stomping.

When she is a bit older we will bring the duvet through to the living room and make an island etc. or put it between the sofas to make a den.

Even when it's cold outside we always go out too!  We live on the coast in Scotland but even if it's below freezing we just wrap up toasty warm and LO can run around the park etc.

I think we might get a trampoline for indoors too.
Mummy to a beautiful girl born Nov 2010 - touchy baby now a touchy/spirited Toddler!

Baby boy born 2nd July 2012 - my very spirited little monkey with MSPI, GERD & dysphagia.  Here to help ask me anything :-)

Offline creations

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #38 on: November 12, 2012, 20:31:37 pm »
We also do lots of climbing, big cushion, duvet and bean bag mountains to climb up onto or to run at and throw himself onto.
Other things
- 'we are a toddler band' marching through the house singing and playing instruments (DS tends to run so gets more exercise), we finish each verse at the music box and swap instruments so the next verse is different.
- As above but 'grand old duke of York' and get our knees up as high as possible whilst marching.
- catch tig, running from living room to kitchen, often a bit of rough housing involved with the tig too.
- carrying bottles of mineral water from the kitchen to the living room and putting in a designated 'area', then carrying them back (toddlers love to carry and test their strength!)
- walking (or running) the line.  I put a long masking tape line on the floor from the living room through the hall into the kitchen and made it into a big spiral on the kitchen floor.
- long distance shape sorting.  I marked out several big shapes of masking tape on the kitchen floor.  In the living room I provided a big box of plastic cookie cutters of various shapes.  DS has to run to the living room to find the shape I've called out then run back and place it in the correct corresponding area.  Then call out another shape and so on.  This can also be done for colour sorting, stick down A4 or bigger pieces of coloured paper to mark out the areas then provide the same cookie cutters or other toys for placing.  The idea is to put the box at a distance from the sorting area so there is lots of to and fro.
-balancing. DS climbs up on my knees and balances, it's a reasonably calm activity but takes a lot of energy (and here results in some rolling around and rough housing too which is always good to tire him out).
« Last Edit: November 23, 2012, 09:30:56 am by creations »


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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #39 on: November 23, 2012, 09:34:58 am »
I marked out several big shapes of masking tape on the kitchen floor.
We are also using these shapes to do 'run to square, run to diamond' etc and have to get there as fast as possible and also 'jump to rectangle...' etc depending on LOs developmental level. DS is only just learning to jump but still enjoys trying to jump from one shape to another.  Could be bunny hops, frog jumps or hopping from one shape to another for older LOs.

- a square of fabric pinned onto arm-sleeves to make a super hero cape and race one another around the house pretending to fly.


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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #40 on: September 23, 2013, 21:38:25 pm »
Another indoor activity from me

We did a great activity whilst DS was poorly (well he was contagious so i kept him home but not all that poorly so was in need of exercise) and will be playing this again with some additional parts through the winter months.

Human sized board game
I made a set of 12 numbered cards with 1-6 having also a square drawn on and marked with dots like dice.  Each card had a sticker as a clue what the instruction was plus an instruction, eg a frog, and "do 10 frog jumps and make the sound of a frog"; a dog "crawl on all fours, wag your tail and bark like a dog"; jump around like a monkey; fly like a butterfly; do 5 star jumps and sing a song about a star etc. Then set the cards out in a trail from the kitchen to the living room, as an assault course climbing over chairs etc. I used a little masking tape to keep the cards in place whilst we played.  We took turns to roll the dice, and take our move physically (jumping through the numbers up to the number on the dice), DS had to do all the instructions no matter whose turn it was!
We played both with 1 dice and with 2 and for this session we began at zero for each turn rather than counting on and trying to get to a 'finish' so there was no competition,  no winner or loser, no one had to stand on a card to mark their place and it was easier to focus on the physical activity.  For older kids a longer course with more cards and a start and finish might be worth including.


Offline ButterflyLily

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #41 on: December 04, 2014, 15:26:32 pm »
We do climbing - LO loves climbing up on the sofa then I help her "jump" off.

This is such a great idea! How come we never tried :)

Offline nwmm

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #42 on: December 24, 2014, 10:29:46 am »
I bought those shower scrubby thungs made out of net material you use on your body at the dollar store -- $.25. We have snowball fights.

Offline Khalam's Mama

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #43 on: January 27, 2015, 22:51:15 pm »
That sounds fun.

Offline ButterflyLily

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Re: Physical Activity (To Tire Out) When Cold/Dark Outside - Ideas?
« Reply #44 on: March 18, 2015, 13:15:15 pm »
Any more ideas anyone? My only new idea is 'make a baby ride a home pet'. But I hesitate to try )))