Action Games for Limited Spaces
Ready ... set ... get off the couch. Get moving and banish the boredom.
86. ALPHABET BODIES: See if your kids can make all the letters of the alphabet using their bodies. Photograph and print the letters, then have the kids cut them out. Glue them on poster board to create your personal alphabet.
87. FOLLOW THE LEADER: Try to lead the kids through the house with funny moves: hopping, crab walking, crawling backwards, etc.
88. OBSTACLE COURSE: Spread a bunch of everyday items around the living room and set up an obstacle course. For example: hop over an umbrella on one foot, hop backwards on the other foot, walk backwards to a mixing bowl, put it on your head and turn around three times, walk sideways to Dad's T-shirt ... you get the idea.
89. BOWLING: Arrange a selection of empty cereal or shoe boxes, milk cartons, and paper-towel rolls at one end of a hallway. Use rolled-up socks as bowling balls and try to knock down the "pins."
90. MEMORY GAMES: Put random objects (a key, a paper clip, a fork, a hairbrush, a penny) on a tray and let the kids study it for a few minutes. Cover the tray and ask them to draw or list as many items as they remember.
91. SIMON SAYS: Who says your kids can't follow directions?!
92. RED-LIGHT-GREEN-LIGHT: All the kids go to one end of the room or hallway, and you go to the other end. They are the "traffic"; you are the "light." When you say "green light," they move forward; when you say "red light," they stop. First one there gets to be the "light" next time. To minimize running in small spaces, have the kids crawl.
93. ACT OUT YOUR FAVORITE STORY: Organize a mini play. You can choose a classic like "Little Red Riding Hood" or let the kids select their favorite book. Costumes not required.
94. HOPSCOTCH: Use painter's tape to lay out a hopscotch course, and use a pencil or bean bag as the marker.
95. GIANT TIC-TAC-TOE: Painter's tape is also good for creating a life-size tic-tac-toe game. You'll need a bunch of rolled up socks—use black for X and white for O (or something like that.)
Next Page: Do-It-Yourself Science Experiments
