Indoor P.E.

Besides family wrestling, lol, we do occasionally have P.E. indoors on super hot, cold, or rainy days. Now, being the super-mom that I am (not!) I also count playing at McDonald's playland as P.E. If we can't do that, we have a variety of indoor games:

1. Family aerobics class: This means we all have to participate and that each person gets one minute to do any exercise they want and everyone has to do it. So Gloria might choose jumping jacks, Danya would do situps, I would do toe touches, and Daniel would pick jogging in place. We take turns and everyone gets about three turns to lead the exercises.

2. Dance Class: We put on a kids' music CD that has lots of short songs on it. Then, just like aerobics class, we take turns inventing a silly dance. Each family member gets to lead the class during one song. When the song changes the leader changes and so does the crazy dance. The bonus is that the songs are educational too!

3. Clean up Your Own Backyard: We make a line with yarn or whatever we have handy down the middle of the room. Then we toss out either light plastic balls, bean bags, or wadded up paper all over both sides of the area. When the music starts we have to race to throw all the junk from our side to our opponents side. When the music stops whoever has the cleanest "yard" wins.

4. Classic Games: Mother May I?, Simon Says, Follow the Leader, Red Light/Green Light. Also, you can set objects at one end of the room and have them run to grab one, run back, drop it at the start line and continue until all the items are moved to the opposite side of the room. Now can they do it while bear crawling? Crab walking? Hopping on one foot? Duck walking? I don't recommend running backwards because they are very likely to fall and get hurt. (Don't ask how I know this, lol.)

5. Who Can Find?: We've played this since they were very little. I ask, "Who can find...?" and then fill in the blank with colors, shapes, textures, sizes, etc. For instance, "Who can find something made of wood?" or "Who can find something bigger than my shoe but smaller than a backpack?" You can also use it for math or spelling. "Who can find 7 - 5 things?" They have to round them up and bring them back. The exercise part is that they are running all over the house frantically to locate the objects and bring them to you or just touch them. For spelling, "Who can find a p-e-n-c-i-l?" For Spanish, "Donde esta la mesa?" They love playing this game in Spanish!