Rainy-Day Fun

If your children are like mine, they get bored and stir-crazy when rainy weather hits. They don't want to sit and do crafts all day, they need to move!

The size of our house limits the amount of running and jumping the kids can do indoors, but using up some of that pent-up energy is a necessity.

Enter the obstacle course. You don't need a lot of room, just a measure of creativity. My most recent one consisted of: a pad where they did a somersault, sofa cushions to crawl over, a Barbie pop-up tent to crawl through, a plastic storage tub to climb over, a table to run around and an office chair to spin on.

The object was to go through the course, spin around on the chair two times and return the same way. I timed them with an alarm clock. That was the best part. Sweet competition.

I had four children in my living room taking turns and being timed. They kept it up for about forty minutes until they were all panting. Afterward, all four of them sat nicely and watched a movie, their energy balance restored to its normal level.

There is no limit to the type of course you can create. It can be as complicated or simple as you like, as long as it incorporates different kinds of movement and sparks the children's interest. Just jumping around or dancing is fun, but the addition of household objects seems to add an element of adventure.