You may believe your toddler participates in enough daily activity from the way he moves with endless energy. The thought of taming that energy for 30 minutes of daily structured physical exercise may be overwhelming, but is what the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) recommends. The good news is that this recommendation does not have to involve elaborate activities or signing up your child for exercise class or sporting teams. You can provide simple, fun and effective physical activity opportunities to benefit both of you.
Outdoors
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its My Pyramid guidelines, suggests teaching toddlers basic movement skills. You can teach your toddler how to skip, jump, run, gallop, walk fast or slow, climb a tree, balance on one foot, or climb a hill. Using a ball, you can play catch or kickball or teach your child how to bounce a ball. As your toddler improves, you can use a tricycle, or beginner roller blades to further enhance his physical exercise. These can all be structured activities in which you lead and he follows.
Indoors
Your home provides a safe place for movement activities. You can turn on your child's favorite music and make up dance movements to perform for the rest of the family. You can set up an obstacle course using crawl-through tubes, couch cushions and your dining room table. You can bring out your yoga mat and teach your child fun yoga movements such as downward dog and cow pose. Yoga Journal's website has pictures and written descriptions for most yoga poses. If you have animals, you may encourage your child to play tug of war with the dog or throw a ball to play fetch.
Games
You may have forgotten childhood games such as "hide and seek" or "duck, duck, goose", but those provide planned physical activity for your child. Other fun movement games are "Simon says" in which your child has to perform the movements that you say or "follow the leader" around your house as you climb over and under different pieces of furniture. You can teach your child "Mother, may I", so your child learns the difference between big steps, small steps, leaps and jumps.
Group Activities
If you choose to sign up your toddler for a scheduled activity, you have many choices. Many communities offer dance classes, sport participation, gymnastics and swimming classes for toddlers. Paying for a class is one way to be confident that you will place it on your schedule. The toddler years are a nice time for your child to try a variety of activities to see which ones best suit his mind and his body.
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