LLL Theme of the Week: Exercise

I'm really not available much these days, but I wanted to at least put a few ideas down (without photos) on this week's LLL theme: Exercise.

Something I'd like to do is make an exercise calendar or maybe weekly schedule is a better name for it. First you make some cards with cut-outs from magazines or drawings that portray different exercise ideas. Then at the beginning of each week let your children pull them out randomly for the week. They participated in the planning, and can anticipate what activities are expected each day. You can have a week full of activities already decided upon that you can plan for in advance.

Here are a few exercise ideas I came up with. It probably works better to have lots of choices, so be detailed when possible. Also, make duplicates of the favorite activities.

Go for a walk (to the park, to the store, in the neighborhood, at the beach, etc.)
Play in the park (soccer, baseball, choose specific parks, etc.)
Bike ride (again, to a certain destination, or at a specific location)
Dance (when my son was 2-3 yrs I would let him jump on the bed while I danced to Wiggles)
Yard/ Housework (don't tell me you aren't sore after spending the day deep cleaning)
Yoga for Kids (I haven't done this, but I'd LOVE to get a DVD or something and try it...any suggestions?)
Pillow Punching (see here)
Obstacle Course (who doesn't love one of those)
Follow the Leader (make a line using tape and add stations for certain activities like jumping jacks, etc.)
Indoor Wrestling (see here)

LLL: Measurements

The Theme of the Week for Laugh, Learn, Love is Measurements. This sparked some good conversations, especially in the kitchen. It's amazing how just thinking about a certain thing helps me to bring it up more often in our daily experiences. We also had a planned activity focusing on measuring length or height. We took photos, but they were terrible (bad lighting ion a rainy morning), so you have to use your imagination.

Materials: Measuring tape, scissors, string/yarn/ribbon. You will also need several of some other items--we used straws and dominoes.

Using the string we cut a length equal to A.'s hight, then mine, than my husbands. So we had three strings, all different lengths. We taped them to the floor for some comparisons, first to each other. "Oh look, my string is longer than yours, but daddy's string is the longest of all." etc.

Next we brought out the measuring tape and measured and recorded each one in inches. Then we lined up other objects to see how many it took to reach the end of each person's string. "A. is 18 1/2 dominoes tall, but only 6 straws tall." etc.

After this I taped the strings to an empty wall with papers giving our recorded measurements inches, dominoes, and straws.

We have guest arriving today, so we will ask them to participate as well. We'll measure their height and put the strings on the wall next to ours to get even more smaller/taller examples.

I also taped a few things (pencil, spoon, toothbrush) to a paper and helped A. use a ruler to measure and record how long they were. On another day I found a page in his workbook that had 4 clown pictures, all different heights. The instructions said to use a coin to measure how tall each of them are. That turned out to be a fun variation too. I figure it can easily be repeated with other pictures.

LLL: Balloons

Here is my post for Laugh, Learn, Love's Theme of the Week: Balloons; four ideas I have created myself and borrowed from others.

Balloon Badminton: Almost every kid I know loves to play some form of "keep away" with balloons. You know, hitting it up and trying not to let it touch the ground. Well, we developed a variation on it that always results in a case of the giggles. Using fly swatters as rackets, we hit the balloon back and forth to each other like a game of badminton. Sometimes I put A on my bed so he is further from the ground (it's easier for me to get to the balloon in time when it's a higher to start with). And sometimes we use the couch as a net we have to hit the balloon over. I pretend it's my exercise on some days, but it's always great for getting A's wiggles out.

Balloon Puppets: The way a balloon slowly sways and bounces makes it perfect for a silly puppet bobbing his head up and down. We used yarn for hair, pompom for a nose, rubber band for mouth, and a Popsicle stick for the puppeteer to hold. Just about anything will work though: buttons, stickers, paper, ribbon, etc. Find what supplies you have around the house, or simply grab a marker and draw until someone new comes to life. (Markers are A's preference--nice and fast.)

Balloon Balls: I saw this idea on Luckybeans and knew it would be an instant hit in our house. I simultaneously hoped really hard it wouldn't be a disastrous mess too! In the end it was a fantastic, mess-less activity. We made a super large one and a med-small one. World Dad stole the small one to use at work as a stress ball (not that his current job is at all stressful, just boring). We did have fun tossing both of them off the balcony to Solo who was a very good sport about being the target during target practice.

Balloon Science: We haven't done this one yet, but I want to try it soon. We have a two week school break right now, so it's looking like a perfect opportunity. If we do, I'll try to post a photo.
**UPDATE: it was a successful science project. Here are the before and after pictures.