Family ideas for living an active lifestyle (3-5 years)

Looking for ideas on how to fit in more activity into your family day?

Depending on the age of your child, whether they’re 12 months or nearly starting school, there are different ways of getting in a little more activity, that could be big movements or little. Some of them you may even do without realising!

3-5-year-olds

Using your hands:

• Throwing and catching
• Rolling and kicking a ball

Keeping moving:

• Running, climbing,  jumping,  riding a bike, using swings, slide
• Walk instead of driving, get off the bus a stop early, use stairs instead of the lift or escalator

Music and movement:

• musical instrument play e.g. shakers, tambourine, drum pad, singing, nursery rhymes, moving to music/ dancing / Jiggy Wrigglers YouTube
• Just Dance games

Games:

• Ball pit/ water play (must be supervised)
• Messy play with play doh, rice, pasta, soft play
• Mini obstacle course, parachute play, sensory play, hide and seek

Sporty activities:

• Swimming/ balance bike/ scooter/ learn to ride a bike/ skipping/ stretching/ yoga/ cosmic yoga- YouTube/ hula hooping/ bouncing trampoline/

Imaginative play: 

• Box play
• Post box
• Play tunnels
• Den building, funny walks, bunny hops etc.

Organised sports

• Swimming lessons
• Gymtots classes
• Soccer tots
• Rugby tots

Out and about:

• Visit parks/ playgrounds/ play hide and seek/ outside play- sand pit/ water table/ water painting
• Crayon rubbings/ nature walks/ bug hunts/ sound walk/ colour hunt

There’s plenty more, but we hope these give you some inspiration to start.