4 indoor physical activities for your kids this winter

Happy African American having fun together indoors, funny married couple dancing with adorable little preschooler daughter and cute toddler son at home, listening to music, family weekend with kids

No matter the weather or the fact we are still in a global pandemic, children need to burn off energy. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids are recommended to have 60 minutes of activity per day.

Along with helping them burn off all that energy, physical activity helps reduce body fat, decreases a a child’s chances of developing diabetes, along with building muscle, bone, and joint strength.

Here are a few ways you can get your kids active while they are indoors.

Exercise grab jar: Write down exercises – anything from burpees to jumping jacks to holding a plank – on a small piece of paper and put them in a jar. Ask everyone in the family to grab an exercise and do the indicated move.

Combine chores with exercise: Along with children helping with household chores, you can also have them incorporate an exercise while doing a chore. One example is helping fold the laundry and then jumping as high as possible.

Indoor snowball fight: Instead of using real snowballs, there are a few house-friendly alternatives. If it’s a game you think your little ones will enjoy time and time again, think about filling a few fuzzy white socks with stuffing and sewing them shut to create reusable snowballs that look the part. Otherwise, simply balling up some socks and handing them out to the kids is a quicker option.

Dance party: Host a dance party with an up-tempo playlist. To take the kids dance party up a notch, consider going with a theme, such as disco, and set out some costumes for them to put on. Or, introduce an arcade-style dance mat that’s compatible with at-home gaming consoles to add some friendly competition to the mix.