Building an Indoor Obstacle Course at Your House

Keeping the kiddos entertained — and helping them get the wiggles out – is tough as we are in the thick of the coronavirus lockdown. Schools are closed. Parents are working from home — and everyone is struggling to find things to do for family fun. 

But, it’s important for our children to have ample opportunity to blow off some steam – and what better way to do it than with an indoor obstacle course? 

Test your creativity by using different toys and household items to put together an obstacle course inside your home. 

Here, are some items you could use to create an obstacle course for toddlers, school-aged kids and even your tweens and teens. 

Preschool-age obstacle course

You don’t have to have every item on this list to make an awesome obstacle course for your toddler. The goal is just to get your child moving. Use any variation of the items below for your toddler’s obstacle course.

Materials:

• Pillows
• Blankets
• Towels
• Couch
• Chairs
• Balance bike or ride-on toy
• Basketball
• Basketball hoop
• Drum
• Painter’s tap; don’t have it? Use stuffed animals to make your trail
• Tunnel
• Balls
• Ball pit
• Cardboard boxes 
• Step stool
• Drum

Activities

• Shoot a ball into a basket
• Climb on top of pillows
• Jump into a circle on the floor
• Crawl under chairs
• Crawl through a tunnel
• Bang a drum 
• Ride on a ride-on toy

Elementary school-aged kids obstacle course

Materials

• Hula hoop
• Balance board
• Bean bag
• Painter’s tape
• Jump rope
• Chairs
• Step stool

Activities

• Balance a bean bag on your head to walk from one obstacle to the next
• Do a somersault
• Do 10 jumping jacks
• Hula hoop for 10 seconds
• Climb from one chair to the next

Tweens and teens course

Just because you have older kids, doesn’t mean you can’t get them involved in the obstacle course fun. For tweens and teens, make the challenges

Materials:

• Painter’s tape
• Hula hoop
• Jump rope
• 2- to 5-pound weights
• Pillow case

Activities:

• Crab walk from the starting line to the first obstacle, which requires your teen to do one set of 12 bicep curls.
• Walk backwards to the next obstacle, which requires him or her to tell the first joke that pops in their head.
• Army crawl to the next obstacle, which requires him or her to shoot a basketball into a basket.
• Climb a set of stairs to reach the next obstacle, which requires him or her to jump rope for 30 seconds.
• Walk backwards to the finish line.

Still unsure exactly how it works? Check out this video from our senior editor who put one together and had a blast with her little guy!