Looking for daily physical activities for kids and toddlers should do every day? These 12 must-do physical activities help toddlers and kids build coordination, confidence, and healthy habits every day from an early age, backed by science.
I know, that if we skip them, my child won’t sleep and I won’t sleep either. So, even if my energy level is down, there is no way for me not doing them, because I have at home a very active toddler.
Besides, physical activity is crucial for the physical and brain development of toddlers and kids.
To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more.
How much exercise does a 2-3-year-old need?
So, if you are wondering how much exercise does a 2-3-year-old need, the answer is simple. Toddlers should be active at least 3 hours a day, including light, moderate, and vigorous activities. That’s not only according the WHO Guidelines on physical activity for children under 5 years of age, but also according to physical activity guidelines for children in UK, Canada, Australia.
The US Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition did not review evidence for children younger than age 3 years and provide very general physical activity guidance for children and adolescents 3 through 17 years old, specifically to be active throughout the day. However, in the first edition, the activity guidelines for toddlers aged 1-3 years recommended that toddlers should engage in at least 60 minutes and up to several hours per day of unstructured physical activity. Additionally, toddlers should not be sedentary for more than 60 minutes at a time except when sleeping. Moreover, at least 30 minutes should be a structured physical activity each day and supervised by an adult.
In conclusion, a minimum of 180 minutes of physical activity a day for toddlers under the age of 3 can be regarded as standard, no matter where in the world your toddler grows up.
So, what’s our solution for these minimum of 180 minutes? What activities do active toddlers love? How do you keep an energetic toddler busy?
Active and energetic little ones love quick, easy and simple toddler activities with instant results. And the best thing is, once they are hooked on an activity, they want to repeat it over and over again.
12 Physical Activities Toddlers and kids Should Do Every day
So here they are 12 physical activities energetic toddlers and kids should do every day.
I spread them out during the day, but you can mix them up as you like or need to.
If your toddler spends at least 15 minutes on each activity daily, they will accumulate a daily physical activity of 180 min. And that matches exactly the recommended minimum of 180 minutes of daily physical activity according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Children around the world.
Additionally, those activities are easy, fun, no-prep or low-prep activities for toddlers and burn off lots of energy! And besides, it’s great also for us parents to get some active time each day additionally to our routines.
Active Activities Before Breakfast
1. Dancing
Start the day with a song and dance, and do it for 10-15 minutes. From nursery rhymes, though Flashdance to Baby Shark, everything that makes your toddler happily move, is a great idea to get some exercise and fun.
What can you do to make dancing more fun? Try to spin in a circle until you get dizzy and then fall laughing on the floor. It’s a great exercise to improve balance and start your morning.
Additionally, there is another one bright idea to improve the dancing experience. Turn your toddler clockwise in a circle, while holding their hands like a flying clock.
Benefits
Enhances rhythm, coordination, and mood. A study in Frontiers in Psychology linked music-based movement to emotional regulation.
Physical Activities before Lunch
2. Catch-me-if-you-can (Game of Tag)
Breakfast was short, we painted, counted and did some scribbling. So, we sat for a while now.
Therefore, let’s get up again and start some chasing outdoors in the backyard. That involves a lot of running around the house and it’s great fun for a screaming, energetic toddler.
Benefits
A study from 2019 found that the participation in a game of tag, promotes helping behavior and self-efficacy in children.
3. Up and Down (Climbing)
Climbing does more than burn energy—it activates several parts of the brain and helps toddlers and kids build important skills like spatial awareness, coordination, and memory.
After you’ve warmed up, let’s go up and down. If you have stairs – stairs up, stairs down, up and down. Let’s do it again! Lucky us, we’ve got stairs! Indeed, we love repetition, and it seems that we will never get tired. In the summer, let’s do it outside!
If you don’t have stairs, use your furniture! Couch, chair, table, bed, and anything that’s safe to jump from, is great way to practice gross motor skills. Turn your couch into a slide…
Benefits
Climbing supports your child’s brain development by boosting spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination, and even working memory—all while they play.
4. Basket-Ball
After we ran up and down the stairs for a while, we got tired. So, now let’s throw some balls in a basket. As simple as it gets. A laundry basket works as well. We can do this at home as well as outdoors.
Benefits
Several scientific studies show that playing basketball can really boost children’s motor skills – helping them move faster, aim more accurately, and build strength, both when they’re standing still and on the move. It also improves how they perform in games overall.
5. Playground Time
Rain or shine, playground time is a must. In the summer for long hours, in the winter depending on the weather, somewhere between 30 min and 1 hour is great.
Let your toddler run, climb, or swing.
Benefits
Playground time builds gross motor skills, balance and social skills. A 2018 study in Child Development found unstructured outdoor play enhances physical fitness and creativity.
Physical Activities After Lunch and Nap Time
6. Ball Play (Kids Soccer)
The nap was good. The energy level is up again, but only for the little one. Mom is tired. So, let’s do some rolling or kicking a soft ball back and forth or into a goal (e.g., laundry basket). Play for 10-20 minutes indoors or outdoors. Use a lightweight ball not to hurt anyone or brake something.
Benefits
Ball kicking develops hand-eye coordination and leg strength (Journal of Motor Learning, 2017).
7. Indoor Tennis – Ball on a String
We love tennis not only outdoors, but also at home! Super easy to set up with a very light ball pit ball. Just hang the ball on a string, tape the string to the ceiling, and ask your child to hit the ball with a light racket.
Benefits
This activity improves balance and hand-eye coordination.
8. Crawling through Tunnels
Yep, tunnels! Above all, build them everywhere around the house with everything you can – chairs, tables, drying rack. Crawl and run underneath, and just have fun.
Benefits
Crawling develops hand-eye coordination and leg, arms and back strength.
9. Obstacle Course
Can you jump over this? Can you jump over that? Nothing simpler than setting up a simple course with pillows to crawl over, tunnels to scoot through, or chairs to navigate around. Putting small obstacles like for example paper tunnels, egg packaging etc. is a great way to help your toddler to learn to jump better. You can also use a step board, so your toddler can go up and I go up and down, jump up and down, run around it.
Benefits
An obstical course improves coordination and problem-solving and makes your child work towards a goal.
10. Hopscotch
No matter whether indoors or outdoors, with rules or no rules, hopscotch is an activity, that’s part of childhood. Do it daily, since it improves balance, muscles and bone strength.
Benefits
Hopscotch has well-documented benefits, including strengthening large muscle movements, improving flexibility, coordination, balance, and agility. (Laely and Yudi (2018)). Furthermore, the study shows the growth of kinesthetic intelligence in children, who do hopscotch on a regular basis.
Physical Activities after Dinner
11. Toddler Yoga
Most importantly, if your toddler is still not tired when it’s almost bath time, let them do some free style toddler yoga. Always, when I try to make a 10-minute yoga at home morning or evening, my son joins with or without invitation. He imitates the yoga poses with precision and concentration. So, give it a try!
Benefits
Yoga before bedtime improves sleep.
12. Bedtime exercise – Roll over
And then, it’s bedtime! So, let us finish the day with some light exercises in the bed or almost in the bed. Legs up and down, up and down, while mom is trying to read a bedtime story. Roll over and roll and roll…until you fall asleep.
Now, should be finally time for some goodnight sleep.
And if you need more inspiration we got 99 easy no-prep daily activities and no problems to do even more.
