7 Best Exercises For Toddlers To Stay Fit!

Exercise for kids can be exciting and enjoyable, just like playtime! It’s all about having fun while staying active. Whether your little ones are at home or in child care in Torrance, CA, you must introduce them to these easy exercises they’ll love and benefit from. These activities require no special equipment or large spaces and can be done in short bursts of five to 10 minutes, or you can combine several for longer playtime.

Let’s start with a quick warm-up to get their muscles and those little booties moving!

Running

Running is a simple and fun exercise perfect for kids’ boundless energy. They can run outdoors, indoors, or even play running games like relay races. To keep things exciting, they can switch between running, skipping, or doing “fast feet” with feet close to the ground. High knees and “butt kicks” are also great variations. Changing directions during running improves coordination and works both muscles and the brain.

Stretching & Yoga

Yoga poses are a fun and easy way for kids to exercise. They can try poses like Tree Pose, Downward-Facing Dog, Upward-Facing Dog, Cobra, Child’s Pose, and Happy Baby. After the yoga session, some simple stretches can keep their muscles strong and healthy. Stretching helps prevent injuries and helps kids feel relaxed after their workout. Try side stretch, hamstring stretch, fingers-to-toes, arm circles, arms to the sky, calf stretch, and runner’s stretch. As a parent, you must look for the Montessori Near you that prioritizes these activities.

Lunges & Squats

These easy exercises help strengthen kids’ legs, which is excellent for sports and staying fit.

• Forward, Backward, and Side Lunges: Step forward, backward, or to the side, bending one knee while keeping the other straight—alternate legs.

• Classic Squats: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, bend your knees, and lower your body like sitting in an imaginary chair.

Make it fun by counting how many lunges or squats your child can do in 30 seconds while keeping their knees in line with their feet and not bending too far. To add excitement, have them hop whenever they stand up during the squats.

Crab Walk

Crab walking is a fun exercise that helps kids strengthen their core and arms.

1. Teach The Movement: First, you must show your kids how to do the crab walk and raise their torso and tummy while moving using their hands and feet on the ground with their knees bent.

1. Fun Challenges: Montessori teachers can make it exciting with these ideas:

• Balancing act: See who can go the farthest without dropping an item (like a stuffed animal or plastic cup) balanced on their stomach. Or, challenge them to balance multiple stuffed animals on their belly.
• Obstacle course: Set up a fun course for kids to navigate while crab crawling.
• Race: Have a crab crawl race to the finish line!

Exciting Indoor Ball Games

These exciting indoor ball games provide great exercise benefits for your kids while improving their balance and coordination. Kids naturally love anything involving a ball, making these activities even more enjoyable!

• Basket Toss: Grab some soft balls and try tossing them into laundry baskets. See who can make the most baskets from different distances.

• Target Practice: Set up a target using household objects and have fun hitting the ball toward it. You can use a soft ball to keep it safe.

• Bowl Catch: Use a plastic mixing bowl as a catch basin for the ball. Take turns throwing and catching to improve hand-eye coordination.

• Wall Fun: Play solo or with a partner by throwing, rolling, or kicking the ball against the wall. It’s a great way to work on various skills.

Remember to choose a safe playing area away from breakable items. Use soft balls like yoga, foam, or bean bags for safety. And if you’re using a small or hard ball, or if coordination is still developing, consider using proper protective gear.

Skipping

Skipping is a fun aerobic activity that helps your child with balance and coordination. Try these skipping games:

• Hopscotch: Set up a grid with numbered squares using chalk (outside) or masking tape (inside). Throw an object onto a square and skip through the course without landing on that square.

• Jumping Rope: Time your kids as they jump rope. Make it more challenging by going forward and backward or making it a competition to see who gets the most skips in a set time.

• Obstacle Course: Create a simple course with items like a chair to skip around and a pot to skip over. Set a timer and have them try to beat their records.

• Skipping Tag: Play tag while skipping instead of running. Mix it up by hopping on one foot, all fours, or other creative moving methods.

Believe me; your kids will be joyful with these exciting skipping games!

Bear Crawl

The bear crawl is like walking on all fours with your belly facing the floor, and it’s a great whole-body exercise for kids. It challenges them to use their limbs and core.

Start by having kids practice the bear crawl movement. Once they’re comfortable, make it more fun by incorporating it into games like obstacle courses or racing to specific locations in the house and back.

With careful supervision in Montessori, teachers can ask kids to even leap over each other’s backs while in the bear crawl poses.

Push-Ups & Sit-Ups

Let’s get down to the floor for some core-strengthening exercises that are great for kids:

• Sit-ups: Kids can try traditional crunches, bicycle crunches, and leg-up sit-ups. There are many variations to make it exciting!

• Push-ups and Planks: Kids can learn basic push-ups and planks to strengthen their upper bodies and core muscles (abs and back). They can modify push-ups by keeping their knees on the ground if needed.

Incorporate these exercises into your child’s routine to keep them healthy with fun. Mixing them with other activities like squats and lunges will make exercising a blast!

Conclusion

So, these are just a few simple exercises that teachers and parents can easily incorporate into the toddler’s daily routine. All these fun and exciting exercises will allow them to work out with fun while improving their body and brain health.