Hobbies And Interests
Balloon Volleyball
Play a team game that has kids kicking a balloon volleyball over a yarn net right in your living room. Move furniture to provide a clear play space. Tie a two or three-foot length of yarn between two kitchen chairs. Adjust the yarn length and height according to the sizes of your space and children. Blow up and tie a balloon for the volleyball. Divide youngsters into two teams and assign each one to opposite sides of the net. Tell the children that they will "crab crawl" to play the game. Demonstrate the position for those who are unfamiliar with it. While seated on the floor, place your hands, palms down, on either side of you and place your feet flat on the floor in front of you. Hoist up your bottom and "crab crawl" on your hands and feet. Toss the balloon up in the air over the center of the yarn net. When the balloon floats to one team's side of the net, those players kick the balloon to the other team. Players kick the balloon back and forth over the net until it touches the floor. The team that kept it in the air and did not allow it to fall to the ground scores one point. Play until a team scores ten points, then switch sides and play again.
Obstacle Course
Organize your own mini-Olympics with a household obstacle course. Roll beach towels lengthwise and secure them with masking tape. Carefully walk, run or hop across the rolled towel "balance beams." Lay hand towels across the floor and hop, leapfrog-style, from towel to towel. Pile chair and couch cushions, then supervise carefully as you let children run toward the pile and jump in one at a time. Make a tunnel from kitchen chairs. Line them up, back to back and one yard apart, then cover them with a sheet. Kids can crawl through or slither underneath on their stomachs.
Newspaper Golf
Roll newspapers into tight tubes, 16 or 36 inches in length, depending on the height of your golfers. Tape them firmly with masking tape for golf clubs. Cut nine, 6-inch diameter circles from any color of construction paper. Apply a loop of masking tape to one side of each circle, then tape them to your carpeted floor. Arrange the circles any way that you like as you set up a nine-hole golf course. Let youngsters swing at plastic practice golf balls with the newspaper clubs. Try to land the ball on one of the paper circles. Assign points to the circles and keep score or just play for fun.