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This blog is here for you to find fun learning activities to do with your children. We share great ideas we find and love on the Internet, as well as ideas we come up with on our own! We also like to share resources we find helpful.

To find ideas for your child, click on the age range blog label or on the theme/topic you are looking for (on the left side of the page). In each post, we try to list optimal age ranges for the activity, but you must judge for yourself if it is appropriate for your child. When you try an activity out, please comment and let us (and everyone else) know how your child liked it!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Surviving Winter: Dancing


One of the major problems with being stuck in the house is a lack of exercise. Exercise is good for the body, but also good for the brain. Okay, the brain is part of the body...but you get what I mean. So an important element to surviving winter is getting exercise in. A great and easy way to do that is with dancing.

There are many ways to get dancing into your day.

The simplest and most basic way to do this is by turning music on and dancing with your child. Back when it was just Brayden and me at home, this is what we did. I did everything from children's music, to modern tunes with a beat, to big band swing music. We just danced and danced. We of course still do this today, and it is even more fun with a group of children :)

Another fun element you can add in is dress up. You can see in the picture that my girls love to wear tutus to dance in.

Many children's CDs have songs that you can play that offer some guidance for how to dance. Examples are The Hokey Pokey, The Ants Go Marching, and If You're Happy And You Know It.

You can also get DVDs that are interactive about dance. The only ones I have that I can speak to are the Prima Princessa Ballet DVDs. I reviewed one on my babywise blog last year and liked it so much I ordered one for Kaitlyn for Christmas.

Another idea is to take dance lessons. You could either do a parent/child dance class or a class just for your child.

A final idea from me is the many interactive dance video games. A good one is Just Dance Kids. These really provide good exercise and are a lot of fun.

Do you have any fun ways you dance with your children? Any great DVDs? CDs? Video games? Please share!
Playing Just Dance at a friend's house

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello! First of all I have to say I LOVE your blog, you have done an excellent job with it!

I run a home daycare and I have the same "cabin fever" problem now that it's so cold out. I invested in a few workout DVDs for toddlers. Their favorite is called Move n Groove Kids. I let them do it after lunch and before naptime, which was when we would usually go for a walk or play outdoors. It's really simple and fun for them. I also have some of the Sesame Street "workout" videos (Happy Healthy Monsters, Elmocize, Zoe's Fav Dance Moves), I use the term loosely since the kids end up sitting in one place and staring. They are cute and fun but for my kids they have not been as engaging.

Keep up the great work here! I am a regular visitor.

Valerie Plowman said...

Thank you Saima!

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