10 High Energy Indoor Activities For Kids
Jan 19, 2022 If you are starting to feel cabin fever, you’re not alone! Each day your children struggle with feelings of boredom as well. But just because your family is stuck at home doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with activities.
Your children need indoor activities with gross motor movements like running, jumping, and even balancing. These give your children the biggest opportunity to release stress and burn energy. Here’s ten high energy activities for kids to burn extra energy!
1. Long Jump
Long jump is a low prep activity that burns plenty of energy for children. Grab your painter’s tape and place long lines of tape on the floor. The best way to do this is by measuring lines out on the floor to create distance challenges.
You can make a ‘starting’ line, then place another tape line one foot away. From there, keep increasing the distance by six inches with lines of tape.
2. Obstacle Course
Since you’re inside with limited space, you need to get creative. I’ve found the best way to create an obstacle course in a small space is by using small furniture around your house. Here are some ideas for how to create an obstacle course.
- Create ‘steppingstones’ by using pillows
- Army crawl under a blanket held up by two chairs
- Skip from one end of the couch to the other
3. Silly String
Head over to an enclosed space like a hallway and stream crepe streamer from one end of the hallway to another in no particular pattern. Make the maze of streamer as difficult as possible and stream them from the middle of the wall down to the floor. This makes the space into a mini obstacle course.
The obstacle of silly string is to navigate through the maze of streamer from one end to the other. To make the game more interesting, set a timer and see who can navigate through the maze the fastest without knocking down streamers.
4. Army Crawl
Similar to the game of silly string, use the same hallway to stream crepe streamer from one wall to the other. However, don’t stream the streamer going up the wall. Stick to the bottom of the walls creating a path to crawl through underneath along the length of the hallway. Just make sure the space between the streamers and the floor is an adequate width so your children can crawl through.
5. Gymnastics
Find a large space in your house for your kids to do some gymnastics moves. Use the space for practicing, handstands, somersaults, cartwheels and more. For an extra element of fun, try a high jump! Grab a broom and have two people hold it horizontally near the couch. Then instruct your children to run and jump over the broom.
If you want your children jumping on the couch, just remove the couch cushions or create a large mound of pillows. Keep raising the broomstick until a child can no longer ‘clear’ the bar.
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6. Pillowcase Race
As the name implies, race each other while hopping in a pillowcase. Whoever reaches the end of the room wins! This game should be played on a carpeted floor. Pillowcases are slippery when used on hardwood floors and could cause injury! Be safe and take it to a carpeted room!
7. Hula Hoop Jump
Instead of using a hula hoop for its intended purpose, use it for a ‘jump rope.’ Hula hoops are great for playing jump rope with because a regular jump rope tends to hit objects in the house easier than a hula hoop. You can make a game of it by seeing who can jump the most jumps in 30 seconds or one minute.
8. Miniature Golf
Create a mini-golf course right inside your house! No need to go outside. Simply use plastic Solo cups with as ‘holes’ for putting. You can have as little as eight holes of golf or as many as eighteen.
While golf doesn’t seem very energetic, get creative with mini-golf. Instead of just placing plastic cups throughout the room, add paper arches taped to the floor to create obstacles for your children to hit a golf ball through. Then let the fun begin by setting a timer! Whoever completes the highest number of obstacles and golf holes wins.
9. Mouse Hunt
This is another game similar to tag that involves the use of painter’s tape and at least two people. Place painter’s tape on the floor in a maze-like pattern with intersecting lines. Designate one person to be the ‘mouse’ and another person to be the ‘cat.’
Start the ‘mouse’ on one end of the room and the ‘cat’ on the other end. Then have the ‘cat’ chase the ‘mouse,’ but only walking on the tape. Think of it like a balancing act of chase. The ‘cat’ and ‘mouse’ can chase and run, but only on the designated lines and they can only change directions if the taped lines intersect. There is no jumping from one line to another, that’s cheating!
10. Cotton Ball Run
Cotton ball run is a fun take on racing with an egg and spoon. But instead of balancing an egg, you try to balance a cotton ball. Since cotton balls are lightweight, trying to keep them on a spoon while running is challenging!
Make a race out of moving cotton balls one at a time from one area to another. You children can walk or run, but if the cotton ball blows off the spoon, they have to place it back on the spoon. They cannot hold it on the spoon. Whoever moves all their cotton balls the fastest wins!
Conclusion
Just because you’re stuck indoors practicing social distancing, doesn’t mean life has to be boring! Let your children take a break from their school activities and simply have fun with a high energy indoor activity.
Although high energy activities require a bit of indoor space and extra creativity, they are worth it! Activities that allow children to burn extra energy may just turn a bad day into a good one! Try and do a different high energy activity each day to break up the mundane life of being stuck indoors.
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