Childrens Fitness Fun, Child Fitness Fun, Kids Fitness Games

Fun Fitness

Water works

Some exercise ideas using water in summer.

• Noodleraces. Children can sit on the noodle like a horse or swing or may wish to hold it in their hands or wrap around their chest and kick.
• Simon says. Include actions like ‘eyes under water’, ‘blow bubbles’, ‘hold on the edge of the pool and kick as hard as you can’.
• Follow the leader. Move through the water using different actions and get the children to copy.
• Spider crawling. Hold on to the edge of the pool and make your way around using only your hands to crawl along the wall.
• Scuba diving. Place sinkable items at the bottom of the pool and help children scuba dive under the water to pick them up. Children may want to use goggles for this.
• Make a whirl pool. In shallow water help children run around in a circle to make the water move naturally in that direction.
• Children water aerobics classes. Many local pools hold these classes for children as young as 3. They are held in the shallow pools and are full of new moves for children to learn.
• Walking the plank. Find a big rubber mat and get the children to step off the edge of the pool onto the mat and walk to the end to jump off. A very fun activity where children use balance, jumping, and swimming actions.
• Ball games. Using a big ball let children experiment in the pool by throwing, splashing, and pushing the ball under the water.  
• Water tag. This gets children moving vigorously through the water expending lots of energy.
• Splash about. See who can make the biggest splash or how long they can splash for.
• Wave play. Jumping the waves at the beach or trying to beat the waves into shore is a fun and challenging activity for children.

• Not all of these ideas will be suited to all ages.
• While some of these ideas will be fun for children in the hands of an accredited swimming instructor, some may be inadvisable for use with younger children unless the supervising adult feels a particular activity is suited to their child.
• All children need careful adult supervision in and around water. 

Home Fitness

Exercise ideas to use indoors or on those cold or rainy winter days.

• Set up an obstacle course. Ensure you remove any breakables along the way. Build the course to encourage a range of movements.
• Play hide and seek. Children need to crawl and climb into hiding spots allowing them to use lots of different muscles.
• Build a cubby house. Children can use tables and chairs, sheets, large cardboard boxes.
• Snowball fights. Using rolled up socks in an area away from any breakables, have a sock war.
• Dance to the Wiggles. Dancing and singing is a great way to exercise whilst having fun.
• Helping mum or dad with the household chores. Sweeping, washing windows, vacuuming all use lots of energy.
• Story time. Make up action stories where children need to do the actions. E.g. ‘Yesterday we went to the beach and surfed (children surf) and paddled (lay on ground and paddle arms). Then we went to the pool and learnt how to swim (swim action) and then to the park to play basketball (pretend to bounce ball and shoot for goal).
• Keepings off. Blow up balloons and try to keep them in the air for as long as you can.  Note: balloons can be fun but also dangerous.
• Perform a circus act. Use hula hoops, tight ropes and balancing balls for children to be creative with their actions.
• Musical chairs and statues. The fun of dancing to their favourite music will really get children moving their whole body.
• Play indoor bowls. Use plastic cups for the pins and a soft ball to roll.
• Hula hoop hop scotch. Set out a pattern for children to either jump, hop or bounce a ball in.
• Put on a fitness DVD. There is a wide range of children fitness DVD’s catering for all ages which will not only keep children entertained but also physically fit.