As we all know, Melbourne winter can lead to many rainy and cold days, leaving us to stay bundled up inside.
So, we have come up with some ideas to help you keep your kids entertained and moving during those cold winter days! These activities are targeted at your child’s gross motor skills, helping them practice their coordination, balance, and stability all while having heaps of fun!
1. Start your engine!
For this activity you will need a TheraBand/resistance band
· Get your child to sit in a chair and imagine they are driving their favourite fast car
· They need to hold onto the TheraBand and stretch their arms out straight in front of them, like if they were to be holding a steering wheel and place their feet on the ‘pedals’ (on the ground)
· Get them to pretend they are driving by moving their hands up and down. It’s okay if the TheraBand gets loose, just try to keep their arms straight
· Encourage your child to make ‘vroom vroom’ sound effects so they feel like they’re driving
· To make this activity more fun, you can YouTube ‘Mario Kart Race’ and place that in front of your child, so the child feels like they’re apart of the race and playing the game in real-time.
If you are interested in more resistance band exercises to help improve children’s strength, balance, coordination and motor planning, you can purchase this set of cards and a TheraBand from our online store.
2. Beanbag Toss
· Take turns with your child, trying to throw bean bags into a small container, empty bin, cardboard box, bucket or even the laundry basket.
· To make this more challenging you can get your child to balance the bean bag on their foot and encourage them to try to land the bean bag into the container.
· If you don’t have a bean bag you can use a small pillow or soft toy.
3. The Floor is Lava
· Use blankets and pillows to build an obstacle course, encouraging your child to jump or leap from one spot to the next without touching the floor, because the floor is lava!
4. Balloon Up
· Inflate a balloon and take turns tapping the balloon with your child to keep it off the ground. The only rule is they can only hit it — not hold it!
5. Inside Obstacle Course
· You can use blankets, pillows, and rearrange indoor furniture to build an obstacle course.
· You can encourage your child to jump over or on the pillows.
· Crawl, climb or run around objects or chairs.
· You may also like to add activities like star jumps, high knees, bear crawls or frog jumps to make the obstacle course more fun.
· Time how quickly your child does the obstacle course, encouraging them to try and beat their time with every attempt!
6. Indoor golf
· Place some masking tape on the floor in the shape of an X.
· Using a small ball like a tennis ball or soft ball take turns trying to roll the ball so it stops at the X.
· The closest ball to the X at the end wins!
Mel Comito
Allied Health Assistant