Click here to read Easy Indoor Cup Stacking Challenge for Active Play on Hands On As We Grow®
Quickly and easily set up a simple cup stacking activity. Activity Room® Member of the Month Melinda loves simple ways to keep her kids active and engaged!
Before joining The Activity Room®, Melinda and her two kids did a lot of outside play. But living in Canada, cold weather prevents a lot of outside play for a good bit of the year.
“When you live in northern Ontario, we have quite the winters,” says Melinda. “Going outside came to an awful end when we had those minus 40 degree days.“
After the outdoor play options were impossible, Melinda was at loose ends. She found things to do via online searches, but it just wasn’t quite enough.
“It just became really difficult,” she explains. “It was a lot of television and just pulling my hair out and trying to Pinterest or Google some basic crafts.”
Melinda really needed some extra help getting started and staying motivated.
“I didn’t really have a support system,” Melinda shares. “None of my friends necessarily did anything other than what I was already doing.”
Busy Parents Find Online Community & Support
Shortly after, Melinda found The Activity Room® and discovered a motivational, supportive community!
“Just having people that are in the same situation that you can kind of fall back on,” she says. “It makes you feel like you actually accomplished something!”
Plus, all of those cool, creative activities were suddenly super accessible! In The Activity Room®, Melinda gets monthly plans with complete activities scheduled (and explained!) for every single day!
“I just need to have it right in front of me and then do it. And have people care that I do it other than my kids.”
Now, instead of feeling stressed about finding, planning, and doing activities, Melinda is relaxed and super fun!
“The Activity Room® has really helped me in changing the mood in the household and refocus the little ones to get through the day in a fun and wonderful way!”
I love how much this has helped me become a funner mom.
Let’s Meet Melinda
How many kids do you have and how old are they?
2 kids. 3 year old boy and 1 year old girl
How long have you been in The Activity Room®?
Since January 2019
What is your favorite activity you’ve done in The Activity Room®?
My favourite activities have been outdoor ones. We love to do nature hunts since we live on 20 acres of forest and my son loves collecting rocks.
We also really loved the painting with water activity where we filled our driveway with chalk and painted and sprayed water all over!
What’s your favorite thing to do with your kids when you get a few moments?
Getting outside is always a gamechanger for me and my kids. We get fresh air and it boosts everyone’s mood!
What’s your best tip for doing activities with your kids?
Remember to keep it simple and do what you can.
Coming from a full-time shift working mama, I know how hard it can be to commit to activities when you’re tired, have piles of laundry and other things to do. But if all the supplies are obtained at the beginning of the month, then it usually only takes a couple of minutes to prep and get the activity out, ultimately making for some independent play at times and giving mama a break!
Also, don’t give up! It can feel frustrating if your child will only sit for a few minutes for the fun activity that you’ve planned, but it’s worth it when you find an activity that they finally love!
And you really get to know your child along the way!!
If you were to tell a friend about The Activity Room®, what would you say to them?
The Activity Room® is an awesome, easy, user-friendly tool that has really made a difference for us, especially during awful weather when we can’t get outside to play!
Before The Activity Room®, I relied a lot on television or basic play with toys that became very boring for my oldest child within a short time frame.
Now with The Activity Room®, I always have fresh activities and fun stuff to do to engage with both my kids and a wonderful accountability group and accountability buddy (Krystyna) to keep me going and give me new ideas to keep the kids happy and keep my mama sanity!
Share your favorite quote
“There’s no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one” – Jill Churchill
Easy Indoor Cup Stacking Challenge for Active Play
When the weather turns chilly, we end up playing inside a lot more often. But inside play doesn’t have to mean being less active!
My kids love this easy cup stacking challenge! It sets up super fast and can be played in almost endless ways!
To set up your own easy cup stacking challenge inside, you’ll need:
- cups
Yup, that’s it!
I love how easy this is to set up! Seriously: 5 minutes.
Turn it into a NERF gun target practice!!
Challenge Your Kids with Indoor Cup Stacking Activities
Whenever you really need to work out some energy, bust out your stash of extra cups. Paper party cups, SOLO cups, leftover kid cups from restaurants, anything works.
The first challenge is simple: stack the cups into a pyramid. Let your child try this on their own, if you want, or help them out.
Stacking cups into a pyramid can be challenging since it involves lots of planning and fine motor skills to balance everything. Start small with a 3-2-1 pyramid and go from there.
Your second challenge: cup bowling! Show your child how to roll a ball and knock down the cups. Challenge your child to knock everything down with just one roll.
Older kids might want to keep score. Play by traditional bowling rules and assign one point per cup knocked over – highest score wins!
Add Some Learning to the Challenge
If you have different colored cups, add patterning to the mix! Start the pattern yourself, then ask your child to keep going.
You could also work on counting. As you set up the pyramid, count the number of cups in each row.
You could start counting, point to each cup as you go. Then, ask your child to count on.
Write down the number of cups in each row, then challenge your child to add up all the numbers! It’s great early addition practice.
For critical thinking, give your child a certain number of cups and ask them to build at least one pyramid. The challenge: they must use every single cup!
If your kids aren’t into any of these specific cup stacking challenge activities, that’s totally fine! Just give them the cups and let them go.
The best part about the cup stacking challenge is that it’s totally open to creative interpretation!
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