Activity ideas for young children

Make home a fun place by incorporating these easy, fun games into your everyday lifestyle.

• Play chasing games with the whanau.
• Chase them to bed, to clean their teeth or to get the mail.
• Run up and down gentle slopes. Make sure there is a safe place to land when coming down!
• Place a scarf into the elastic at the top of their trousers. Chase them while you attempt to grab the scarf.
• Bob up and down to music. (This is the first movement needed to learn to jump.)
• Many children enjoy the bounce they get on a bed or sofa (if you don’t mind your child doing this). Support their arms as they jump up and down.
• While folding the washing, lay the socks on the floor a little apart. Ask them to jump over the socks. Count them as they jump.
• Put a sock (or similar) on the floor. Have them stand on the sock and jump their feet wide and back onto the sock again. Older children may like to try jumping backward and sideways.
• Try making a challenge course of things around the house to jump over in different directions. Put a towel on the carpet (or other non-slip flooring) and try helping them to jump into the middle, onto a corner, jump backwards off the towel.
• Support their hands and help them jump off low heights onto the ground e.g. off a low wall.
• Go for a walk and have them jump over cracks in the footpath and over (or in) the puddles.