Young children need to move and challenge their bodies everyday for several hours. Jumping games can offer your little one a lot of physical fun and they are pretty easy to set up – both inside and outside.

  • Tape jump – all you need is a roll of masking tape, some open space and some jumpers. Tape a starting line, this is where the kiddos will jump from. You will tape a line to where your kiddo jumps to. Super simple, super fun.  
  •  Sidewalk Chalk Jumps – draw different shapes (keep them fairly close to one another for the new jumpers and short legs) on a patch of pavement – take turns calling out to each other what shape to jump to next.  

If you’d like more jumping game activities, check out therealisticmama.com for more.

This was included in the newsletter our Early Childhood Community Consultant Anita regularly sends to families. If you are interested in being on her e-mail list, please e-mail Anita Olson at aolson@fsgv.ca  or phone her at 604-723-9548.

Here are some additional ideas from me.

  • You can also use a skipping rope on the ground, moving it around and pretending that is a snake. Wiggle it slow at first and then faster, turning it into silly game. Invite your child to jump over it. If he/she lands on the rope , you can laugh about it: ” Oh, you landed on a snake, funny, snake must be tickled, let’s try again!”
  • Use chalk to draw an old fashioned hopscotch, write numbers from 1 to 8 and get your child to jump from 1 to 2 and so on. The older children will learn the number sequence that way, let younger simply jump from one square to the other as they like. This is the game that is popular all over the world. You can do it indoors, use some masking tape to make the hopscotch.

  • Have so much fun together pretending to jump like different animals: a frog, rabbit, dog etc.
  • Sing and act out the “Jumping, Jumping, Jump!” song we sing during our active circle at the gym.

Jumping, jumping, JUMP!