If you’re in a household with little ones needing constant entertainment and stimulation, we’ve compiled a few handy tips for the school holidays to keep your family active and feeling more balanced.
Keeping your family active and engaged is important, but it doesn’t have to be a chore. Plan some easy at-home activities for the kids and have some fun along the way!
1. Set time for a daily walk or bike ride
Establishing a routine is more important than ever over the Aussie school holidays. By allocating a daily time to exercise, you’ll give your family much needed structure and most likely something to look forward to. Get familiar with local parks, bike paths and walking tracks to make the most of your time outdoors.
Keeping these outings fun and varied is something to strive for. Choosing to bring along kids bikes, scooters or skateboards is an easy way to ‘level up’ your walks, as not all children are capable of long walks or runs.
Even if you choose to walk yourself, encouraging your child to cycle means they can ride up ahead and double back to you. Riding a bike is a skill every kid should learn, and an activity that offers many physical and mental health benefits at every age.
2. Invest in outdoor play equipment
Considering how highly energised they always are, it will come as no surprise that children need on average an hour’s worth of vigorous exercise each day to stay healthy. Having access to their own sporting or outdoor play equipment is a failsafe that can encourage your kids to keep moving, whilst engaging their imaginations.
Investing in a good trampoline or a kids outdoor swing set is a worthwhile way to improve any Aussie backyard, especially when public playgrounds aren’t convenient to get to every day.
3. Organise a camping 'staycation' at home
Even if you’re not going away, it doesn’t mean you can’t create the same feelings of excitement and anticipation from your very own backyard.
Organising a ‘staycation’, such as camping in the backyard, can allow your kids to get involved in planning as though you were going on a real trip together. It’s also a great way to try camping with kids for the first time – with a toilet, kitchen and the comforts of home close at hand.
Build a fort under the stars, bring your old camping tent out of storage, or roast some marshmallows over a backyard fire pit if local regulations allow. Let imagination be your guides!
4. Host the Olympics at your place
Backyard games or a simple obstacle course are super fun and a great way to drain the kids’ energy. Similarly, creating family-friendly ‘Olympics’ or ‘Survivor’ inspired obstacles courses can help break home based monotony.
Use equipment or furniture you already have at home to create a series of competitions, and countdown to different ‘events’ to give your family something to look forward to. You can even encourage your little ones to ‘train’ for any upcoming ‘competitions’ your family may dream up together!
5. Have a nature scavenger hunt
This outdoor nature play activity is also good during the school holidays so the kids can unleash their inner Indiana Jones. Basically, you give them a list of things that they have to “scavenge”. Set a time limit. The one who has the most scavenged items from the list is the winner.
Opening image: Family having fun in the backyard with a vuly PlaySet
