It is not easy finding the time to exercise with a young child, especially a two year old who is exerting her will more often than not these days. I want to go for a walk but she doesn’t want to and refuses to move. She wants to go outside to take a walk but it is 10 degrees outside and dumping snow. We always feel better in mind, body and soul after some good exercise but it is so hard to make it happen some days.
Last month I decided that we are going to try harder to incorporate exercise into our daily routine. I came up with some ideas for activities we can do that incorporate exercise that are fun for both mama and toddler. We have exercise activities we can do indoors when weather permits us from going outside. We also have a variety of fun exercise activities we can do outside.
Here are 5 Ways to Exercise With Young Children:
1. Dance parties. When your child is a bit older you might be able to crank up your favorite tunes on the Ipod and have a fun family dance party. That doesn’t fly with our toddler daughter. She loves family dance parties but it has to be to songs like “The Hokey Pokey” or “The Wheels on the Bus.” We don’t have a television and occasionally stream free shows on our computer. Our little nugget loves The Mother Goose Club. She has learned some very cute dance moves and kids songs that fuel the family dance parties all day long!
2. Yoga. I don’t practice yoga daily although it is on my list of goals for the new year. I wanted to teach our little nugget some yoga basics so I bought this great activity set called Yoga Pretzels. It has 50 different colorful cards with yoga activities for kids and adults. Our little nugget is totally obsessed with these cards and loves to copy the poses and “do yoga”.
3. Walks. We try to go outside everyday for a walk unless the weather is too cold. Sometimes we walk to the back edge of our property to see the neighbor’s horses, sometimes we go on a “nature adventure” or “exploring” just to see what we can find: pretty rocks, puddles, a feather, etc. Today we went outside while it was snowing and took a walk around the property to explore tracks in the snow.
4. Riding bike. In the fall, we spent numerous days outside riding our bikes around our new property. Our little nugget is just learning to ride her tricycle so I can ride laps around her while she putts along. We also have a bike trailer that she loves to ride in. Luckily I have a mountain bike so I can hitch up the bike trailer and we go for a ride around our property, down the dirt road and around the bumpy pasture. It is a blast and I get a good cardio workout. When there is snow on the ground, sometimes we go out to the garage and our little nugget rides her bike around on the concrete floor. Not as much fun as riding outside but still good exercise!
5. Activity Basket. Creating an activity basket is an easy way to encourage exercise with a young child. Outside we have an old metal washtub that is our outdoor activity basket. There are a variety of toys in there our little nugget can choose from for a fun, active game. There are several different kinds of balls for kicking and throwing. The favorite is the hula hoop that even my husband loves to play with! When I go to second hand stores and yard sales, I’m always on the look out for new toys to add to our activity basket.
Figuring out ways to exercise with young children can be challenging. I’m working on incorporating fun physical activity into our daily routine so exercise will just naturally happen. That way it won’t be a chore to go exercise and we’ll feel better and be healthier all while having fun!
Do you have any ideas or tips on how to exercise with a young child?
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Dancing, riding bikes, and going for nature walks are faves around here too. We also have a playroom with minimal furniture so more room for the littles to run around.
We have a space in our new house with a big area where we can run around too- it is SO nice to have when it is super cold out and we’re all stuck inside for a few days and need to expel some energy!
Hoola hoops are so much and so versatile. You can use them to help kids develop balance while having fun.
Yes, thrift shops are a great resource for finding play items for exercise!
We have some fun with family hula hoop games, they really are versatile and fun to exercise with!
Dance parties seem to be quite popular methods of getting our kids to be more active. We also go on hikes which just means walking next to trails to my son haha.
We love to go on hikes too. If we go to a trail a lot of times our daughter ends up in the hiking backpack or three wheel stroller that goes well on trails. She doesn’t get too far at her slow 2 year old pace when hiking!
I am digging the idea of an activity basket - we will have to add that in! Thanks for listing the items you put in there. Do you have any recommendations on bike seats for kiddos? We live in the city and there is no way DH is letting me hitch up our toddler to a trailer…already tried to lobby for that one and got a big N.O. For now, just biking with the older Sweet Peas and leaving a very sad toddler behind with her daddy.
We’re actually hoping to purchase a bike seat this spring. Some of the pasture at our new house is pretty tough to pull a bike trailer through. I figure if we have a bike seat it will be easier for me to bike around more of our property. Plus dodging the potholes when riding on the dirt roads around are house are easy to do on a bike but the bike trailer ALWAYS manages to hit a hole and makes a pretty bumpy ride for our daughter!
great ideas! I love the hula hoop…although I am soo uncoordinated
Yeah, I’m pretty uncoordinated with the hula hoop too! My husband is really good at it which makes me feel ven more uncoordinated. But we have a lot of fun trying to do it and it is a great work out!
These are some good ideas. I need to pull out our Angel bear yoga materials and actually use them.
I had our set of Yoga Pretzel cards for over a year before I actually got them out and started using them. Sometimes we have great intentions but putting our ideas into action can take a little extra planning and motivation! I’m so glad I got the Yoga Pretzel cards out, our daughter LOVES them. She actually wants to keep the box of cards in her bed when she sleeps so when she wakes up she can grab them and start doing yoga!
Great ideas. With babies and toddlers I used to lay on my back and give horsey rides on my legs
Great ideas! Looking forward to warmer weather so we can get more active outdoors!