5 fun ways to stay active and learn PE skills at home.

1- Balls. Balls are great but not indoors. They bounce everywhere and break things. Solution? Make your own. You will need: balloons, sandwich bags, rice or flour, scissors.
Step one: cut the neck off two balloons and dispose (although you must blow through them for comedy trump noises first). Step two: put a small amount of rice into the corner of a sandwich bag, and wrap tightly. It should be just a bit smaller than a tennis ball. Step three: squeeze the bag into one cut balloon. A small part of the sandwich bag will still be showing.  Step four: place this ball into the remaining balloon to cover the cover the exposed side. You now have your first ball that will not bounce and roll all over the house. These are essentially juggling balls and we would recommend making three of them to learn how to juggle. Great for hand eye coordination, and catching.  You can also use the balls for target games such as boules to practice throwing. Check out Boccia on YouTube to learn a new Paralympic sport.

2- Circuits. This works well with a partner but is great on your own too. It can be made as easy or as hard as you like. Think of five different activities eg. star jump, hopping, press-up, shuttle run, squats. Select one activity, take it in turns to time each other. How many can you do in 30 seconds? You can be as creative as you like with the activities. Remember your score and see if you can beat it each day that you take part. Great for fitness but can also help with balance and coordination, involve equipment (juggling balls work well here) for some extra fun too.  

3- Sitting Volleyball. An absolute favourite of ours when we are teaching our Paralympic Sports scheme of work.  We use beach balls during PE at school but a balloon would be better for inside the house.  Mark out a small court and away you go. The rules are in the name of the game, you must be on your bottom at all times. Moving and sliding is allowed.  This can be played as a team, trying to keep the balloon in the air for as long as possible, or played more competitively by playing against someone else. We would recommend doing both.  Great for hand-eye coordination, teamwork and learning about new sports.  Check out some of the Olympic footage on youtube, a great game that can be played by all.

4- Obstacle course. Cushions, chairs, blankets, shoes, tables etc. Use what you can find to create a course that tests balance, co-ordination and agility.  You could incorporate gymnastics into this by creating sequences as you move along the “apparatus”.

5- Laundry basketball. Just a quick silly one to finish. At the end of each day encourage children to throw their dirty washing into the washing basket, balled up socks work best (I know balled up socks are annoying, but this is worth it!) Make it as competitive as you like- different points, different distances, first to 10, over arm, underarm the choices are endless. Great for throwing skills, tactics and tidy bedrooms.