Make Fitness More Fun with a Spelling Workout

Whether you’re a gym teacher looking for something fun to do with your kids on rainy days or a parent with the same problem, this alphabet workout from 730 Sage Street is a great thing to have handy.

Each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a particular movement, such as jumping up and down 10 times (A), bending down and touching your toes 20 times (S) or 10 pushups (Z).

The idea is that you can spell your name and do the workout you get.

I have problems with this in a big group, because some kids will have short names and some long (and some like my poor kid, whose name is short but who has repeating letters). Maybe with a group or for kids with really long names you could have them work out their initials, or choose a four-letter word or roll dice to choose a certain number of letters or something to make it a little more fair.

Also, there are somersaults, cartwheels and pushups on this list, which not every kid of every age can do, but this is a fun place to start building in some playful exercise.

There are two versions of this workout for adults, too, if you want to get in on the fun. Or use the kid’s version and work out alongside your kiddos.

[Photo via 730 Sage Street.]

If you are looking for fun active games to get the kids moving, I highly recommend this Floor Is Lava Board Game

When my daughter was younger I would spend a lot of time trying to come up with activities she could do in the car on long road trips and things to entertain her when we were waiting at restaurants and things that didn’t involve screens.

But it turns out there are a lot of great activities you can do with just a piece of paper and a pen.

What Do We Do All Day has a great collection of pen and paper games, including some that can be done with just one person, though they’re all more fun if you have at least two.

There are some classics on here like hangman and dots and boxes, but there are also quite a few I hadn’t heard of before.

I don’t want to spoil the whole list for you because you should definitely click over there and look around, but I will share about the one that you see pictured above.

This game is called Bridges, and you start by making the big random shape and the dividing it into a bunch of sections (the post says 30-50 sections is ideal but I think this one is smaller than that).

Each player gets their own color marker and you take turns drawing bridges from one space to another, crossing a third. Once there’s a bridge, no other bridges can start, end or cross in those spaces. Keep going until no more bridges can be built, and the person who makes the last bridge wins.

Check out the post over at What We Do All Day for more great ideas for no or almost-no prep games you can play with your kids or that kids can play together. I’d love to know if you have a favorite paper and pen game, whether it’s on this list or a different one.

[Photo: What We Do All Day]

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