Indoor Big Movement Games
Spring brings an energy of expansion and movement, and our young children often embody this energy with gusto! Voices get louder, movements get bigger - full of chaotic excitement. Children love to run, chase, wrestle. In spring, young children are full of this zest for life, in ways that can push boundaries, lead to all manner of bumps and bruises, and test the limit of our quiet adult sensibilities. It is helpful to meet this growing energy with acceptance as a part of a larger natural cycle. It is perfectly natural for children to seek greater physical challenges, to want to run and scream as they feel their body streaming with life and joy.
Of course, outdoor play is our greatest ally at these times, for nature is expansive enough to hold this wild, bubbling energy while offering all of the necessary challenges for developing bodies. There are times, however, when our children have the wiggles and their energy is 5 times their actual size, but going outside is just not an option at that moment. Here are 5 big movement ideas to help release that building energy, all done in the comfort of home!
Crawling. When children are racing around the house and you feel your anxiety start to rise, anticipating when it will all go wrong, challenge children to crawl as fast as they can. Maybe it's a house rule: Running is for outside, but inside, you can crawl as fast as you want. Crawling is good for the body and good for the brain, not to mention, it’s tiring! So let your children burn up energy by crawling around your house. Add some imagination to it - they can be bears, kitty cats, mice. If that is still too much, have them slither like snakes :D
Wrestle them. Yes - I said it! Wrestle them! Wrap your body around their body and roll across the floor. (I call this Sack of Potatoes) Wrap around them and hold them tight, making them wiggle free with all of their strength (this has always been the Sleepy Witch game in our house, where the witch has caught them, but fallen asleep, and they have to wiggle free -- sometimes she wakes up and holds on tighter and they have to do it all over again). Get into “Sumo” stance and have your child push against your hands with theirs, trying to get you to step backwards. These are just a few ways for them to feel and use the fullness of their bodies and strength in safe ways with clear boundaries. These are full body workouts that are good for everyone, with lots of laughing too!
Carry heavy things. It is always nice to have something heavy in the house that needs moving. Have children help carry full(ish) grocery bags, laundry baskets and whatever other heavy chores that could be helped with. A basket of rocks that occasionally needs a new home (the occasion being when they need some big work for their big energy) is one I have often used. Large, heavy bean bags are great too - you can balance one on their back as they crawl around the house, a donkey delivering its goods. Whenever we add weight to their activity, it naturally slows them down.
Couch Cushions and obstacle course. Let children build an obstacle course in the living room. Set up chairs to go under and over. Use couch cushions to jump onto. If needing supervision, this can become a living room circus, in which you direct the acrobats from a distance: do it on one foot, do it backwards, do it crawling, do it like a butterfly…. you are the Ringleader.
Focus Challenge. Channel all of that big energy into a very focussed challenge. For instance, balancing a bean bag on their head, a spoon on their nose, a bean bag on each shoulder. The challenge of crossing a room while balancing an object on our body is a delight to children, and it brings all of that big energy into laser focus. Another fun focus game is to blow feathers or wool fluff into a basket, or onto a plate. Children lay on their bellies, with light-weight items around them that they blow. They slither and blow until the items get into the basket! This is great fun that they often will do over and over, and it doesn’t take more than the initial example to set it up. Once they have seen it done, off they go.
With these steadfast tools of redirection, you will feel like a true magician when movement gets too big for the home, and you won’t even need a magic wand - just imagination and some household furniture. Of course, magic wands are quite fun, so if you feel called to, do add it to your parenting sorcery kit. *Poof* - now you are a snail, slipping across the floor with your home on your back ;)
