Yesterday we kicked off our Move and Groove with Your Kids 30 Day Challenge. Over the next few weeks we'll be sharing a lot of fun ways to move with your kids, in addition to our usual posts. We hope you'll join in!
One of my favorite spring activities when I was a teacher was our school-wide jogging club. Kids spent lunch recess running laps around the field with their friends. I decided to take the idea and create our own family jogging club this week.
I am a runner and my kids are constantly running away from me or running around our house 🙂 so I thought I'd channel some of their energy and create an activity that worked on concentration skills, endurance, counting, and fine motor skills... while also getting them moving with me.
Family jogging club can be done at a park, inside a gymnasium, on an outdoor basketball court, or even in your garage. We turned our cul-de-sac into our very own track with a few orange cones for a start and finish line.
Supplies Needed:
- cardstock
- scissors
- markers
- stickers
- hole punch
- cones or chalk
Instructions:
Before we got started running, we created our jogging punch cards using cardstock, markers, and stickers.
I cut the cardstock into 4x6 pieces and then drew 20 little circles around the edges of each card. Next I wrote each child's name on the top of their card. My 5-yr-old totally could've done that himself (next time!)!
We finished off the cards by decorating them with stickers and then we were ready to go!
Once our punch cards were created, we set up start and finish cones in our cul-de-sac and started running laps!
Each time we ran one lap around the cul-de-sac we got a punch on our cards. We took turns doing the hole-punching and my 5-yr-old had so much fun working out his finger muscles too!!
Once the kids are each done with one punch card, they get to get a little cheap trinket/prize and then can move to a new card. My 5-yr-old son was so excited about getting his card punched that he ran 11 laps around our cul-de-sac! I'm exhausted just thinking about it!
My toddler ran with me and walked a little bit too and loved just chasing me. She thought the punch card was fun as well.
The kids are already asking when what time we are having jogging club tomorrow, so I think the activity was a hit!
I loved how this activity got all of us moving and helped us strengthen our finger muscles, our counting skills, and our legs too!
Do your kids like to run? What other ways do you exercise together?
If you missed it, you can read more about our 30 Day Move and Groove Challenge here. Are you going to join in?
I love this idea and will have to use it when my little ones are older! Right now they are 20 months and 4 months. We can't go to the park or walk/jog because we STILL have not gotten a double stroller! So, I am trying to get creative to get us moving. Yesterday we worked on colors and movement by having the older one stand and sit and move to different color tiles on the floor as we called out a color and instruction. It was lots of fun.
Thanks for doing this series. I will have lots to pin, I am sure!
Leah @ simplehomeblessing.com
Can't tell you how much I admire moms who find ways to enrich the lives of their little learners like this. Keep up the wonderful work, Leah.
Great way not only to get moving, but to keep motivated! I love it.
Oooh! We are totally doing this!!! My 7 year old was so bummed that she can't join the running club at school until next year-she is going to flip for this idea!
We've been having fun with our Mommy and Me Workouts! We just set up station outdoors or indoors and do them together! theeducatorsspinonit.blogspot.com/search/label/Mommy%20and%20Me%20Workout
Wow, this is such a great idea! We're covered in snow right now, but I'm filing this away for spring … or summer, depending on the snow 🙂