With parks being closed, swimming classes cancelled and sporting centres closed, our options have become fairly limited.

Living through these extraordinary times, one must wonder how to navigate our new – hopefully temporary – reality and create a new sense of normalcy during quarantine. You might be working remotely from home while taking care of your kid(s) and suddenly becoming a grade 3 teacher. There’s lots to manage and organize now.

Our kids are living through this difficult and stressful period as well, so keep this mind especially when your patience is put to test.

If you’re like me and have a little one at home that is highly energic, you might be asking yourself what can you do to keep your kids active and healthy during a lockdown. How much exercise do kids need a day?

The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines suggest that kids ages of 5 and up should have at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity daily. This doesn’t need to be done all at once, and with kids’ shorter attention spam, aim to keep them active 15-20 minutes at once, especially if they are younger.

Here are some of our favorite games and activities that start our heart pumping and giggles coming!

Freeze Dance

Shake it off! Dance when the music plays and when the music stops everyone freezes, preferably in funny positions. Apart from stirring up a good sweat, everyone will be laughing and having a blast. You can even set it up as a rule at the beginning of the week. Designate someone as the week’s DJ and when the music plays everyone has to bring their moves to the living room! Bring your camera too, and make some memories!

Set Up a Maze

Use yarn, cones, stuffed animals, pillows – pretty much anything to create a maze, or an obstacle course. Get your chronometer ready and start the race. It’s so much fun to see the competitive side of your little ones emerge!

Scary Monster Run

At least once a day, my husband or I have to become monsters or zombies and chase around our little one. This game of running from a “scary” monster will bring on so much laughter and delight to you and your little one. You can also changeup roles, and let your child become the little monster and chase you around.

Play hopscotch, fly a kite, play soccer, hula-hoop, ride a bike, play hide and seek, tag or just go for a good old walk. All these are great options to keep our little ones active!

Remember, keep it fun, keep it simple and always model the behavior you want your little one to embrace and do. You can’t expect them to keep active and move around while you sit on the couch. So, get moving and lead by example.