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Children's Exercise Games

Childhood obesity is a growing problem as children spend more time in front of televisions and video game consoles and less time playing outside. Most children would benefit from adding more exercise into their daily routines. While adults tend to think of exercise as running on a treadmill or lifting weights at the gym, exercise for children can be as simple as running on the playground at school recess or riding bikes with neighborhood friends. Many traditional children's games as well as some newer ones offer an aerobic workout while also providing enjoyable entertainment for children.

Jump Rope Rhymes
- Two children hold the ends of a long jump rope and turn it. One child jumps while the rope turners chant a rhyme. The jumper continues jumping until he trips on the rope, at which point another child takes a turn jumping. When three children play, they rotate between jumping and turning the rope. When more than three children play, the extra children form a line waiting to jump. When a jumper's turn is over, he takes a turn as a rope turner and the replaced rope turner joins the line. See the Resource section below for a list of jump-rope rhymes.
Red Light/Green Light
- One child is the "stop light." The rest of the children line up across a field or gymnasium from the stop light. The stop light calls out "Green light!" and all the children run toward him. The stop light then calls out "Red light!" and all of the children must stop instantly. Any children caught in motion after "Red light!" is called are out. If a child is able to get all the way to the stop light and touch him without being called out, that child wins the game and serves as the next stop light. The stop light wins if all the other children are called out without reaching him.
Freeze Tag
- One child is "it" and chases the other children. If a child is tagged, he must freeze in that spot, standing with his legs spread apart. He must remain frozen until another child crawls through his legs, at which time he may rejoin the game. The game ends when all of the children have been tagged and frozen. The one who was tagged last becomes "it" for the next game.
Dance Dance Revolution
- Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is an enticing alternative for the video game generation. Originally an arcade game, it can also be played at home on video game systems using special dance pad controllers. The players watch the screen, where scrolling up, down, left, and right arrows appear in synchronization with popular music. To play the game, each player steps and jumps on corresponding arrows on a dance pad. Most songs have several levels of play, ranging from beginner to heavy. A similar dance game called Stepmania is available as a free download for PC, Mac and Linux computers.

Kids Games