Playground closed? Change the ground for play! Our Camps team (for whom the fun never stops) offers this idea for a living room obstacle course that will keep kids challenged, active and delighted.
- Plot out your course. Pile couch cushions and pillows on the floor for climbing or doing somersaults over, and arrange chairs with a sheet draped over for crawling under. Use the coffee table, storage cubes—whatever you have to work with. Add cones or plastic water bottles for the kids to hop around. Don’t make it easy!!
- Use painter’s tape to mark the start and finish line and any “lanes” you’d like to create. Other ideas? Mark a “balance beam” on the floor, or create a hopscotch section.
- Get creative!
- Fill a bowl with dried beans or pennies or such, and have one rule be that everyone has to count out 10 of that item before moving on.
- Build in fun pauses—have a pair of dice at one point in the course. Racers have to stop, roll the dice, and do that number of jumping jacks before continuing on.
- Use a spinner from a board game and plan a certain action based on where it lands—could be a number, a color (“grab something red!”), etc.
- Use your animal instincts! Write out “crab,” “bear,” “snake,” etc., on index cards, and position them upside down at a certain point in the course. Kids have to pick one, and then move like that animal to the next point.
- Use a timer so each child has a “personal best” to beat when they go again!
Kids will have a blast, get a physical workout, and gain confidence as they master the course.