10 Indoor Sports Kids Can Play

September 25th, 2011 by admin

After a day or two of being stuck indoors, kids often need a way to burn off some of the energy that they normally use up in outdoor play. Here are 10 sports activities that can be adapted for inside the house.

1. Balloon Volleyball. All you need for this is a string or piece of yarn, two chairs, and some large balloons. The string or yarn, strung between two chairs, becomes the volleyball net. This game is played the same as regular volleyball, but with the kids on their knees.
2. Balloon Foot-Volley. This is the same as Balloon Volleyball, only the players are restricted to an upward-facing crab position, using only their feet keep the balloon in play. Much energy will be burned, and there will likely be many giggles and shrieks to go along with this game.
3. Waste-Basket Ball. A small, clean wastebasket and a lightweight ball are all that are needed for this game. In fact, the ball doesn’t even have to be a ball! You can take a thick pair of socks and roll them up, then wrap with enough duct tape to hold them in a round shape, and you have a ball. The basket can be moved around for a shot-matching game, moving the basket into corners or other obstructed spots to allow fancy bank shots or shots around obstacles.
4. Balloon Basketball. This game can be as simple as two players sitting and facing each other from a few feet away. A medium-size balloon is the ball, and the hoops are made by the opposing player holding arms in a circle shape in front of his or her chest.
5. Hallway Bowling. 10 empty one or two liter soda bottles can serve as the bowling pins, and any sort of small ball can become the bowling ball. The kids can either roll the ball from behind a line, or, if you have a foam ball of some sort, it can be safely thrown at the pins.
6. Balloon Football. This is a hands-off game, played on a table. Each team of one or two kids takes a side of the table to defend. A balloon is set in the middle of the table-field, and the two teams try and blow the balloon to the other team’s end of the field. Points are scored when the balloon is blown off the end of the table and returned to the center to start the next play.
7. Carpet Hockey. You can use that same sock-based ball used in Waste-Basket Ball. Define an area of a carpeted floor as the hockey rink, with goals at each end. Wrap tape around the corners at the end of two or more paint stirrers, and they can be used as the hockey sticks. The kids play the game on hands and knees. Much entertainment and silliness will likely follow.
8. Table Tennis. Also known as ping-pong, this one requires the proper equipment. A ping-pong table, which is usually green and has a low net across the center, serves as the playing field. Then each player will need a ping-pong paddle for serving returning the volley of the ping-pong ball.
9. Mini-Golf. Take a yardstick, and tape a large plastic building block on one end. Any small ball can be used in place of a regular golf ball. The kids can set up “holes” made from small boxes or empty cans, and create obstacles to knock the ball around, under, or over.
10. Boiled Egg Races. A carton of hard-boiled eggs, a set of table spoons, and whatever obstacles and course you’d like to set up to race around. The kids carry the boiled eggs on a spoon while either walking or crawling through the courses. A Stop watch gives the added dimension of keeping records for fastest time through each course.

All of these sports adapted for inside the house will help keep the kids active and fit, even on those days when it is too hot or cold, or too wet, to play outside. And, they have the added bonus of wearing the kids out for nap or bed time.