I love my kids but….well I think they’ve stolen all my energy. Actually I’m pretty certain they have because they seem to have it in bucketloads while I’m knackered. May be it’s something to do with all those nights (years?) they didn’t sleep? Who knows, either way the issue is that sometimes my kids need to play and have fun and sometimes I just need to sit down and not run around. Maybe it’s been a night without much sleep, maybe it’s because you’re ill, either way having had a few years to get myself sorted I thought I’d share my best games you can play with your kids without having to get up off the sofa – you’ll be pleased to know that a lot of these knacker your kids out too – bonus points right?!
5 Games You Can Play With Your Kids Without Having To Get Up
1 – Musical Statues
I played this for about half an hour at the weekend without having to move and man did I appreciate that! Pop on YouTube and get some tunes on while your kids bounce around – my kids current favourites are Happy by Pharrell Williams, Can’t Stop the Feeling by Justin Timberlake and Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars
2 – How Does This Animal Move
I made this game up when I was heavily pregnant with my second child and couldn’t cope with running around playing. I doubt I’m the first person to think of it but boy I was glad I did! Sit yourself down somewhere comfy and then get your kids to run around the room how different animals would; show me how a butterfly would fly round the room, how would a dolphin swim round the room? This normally keeps us going for as long as I can think up different animals.
3 – Eye Spy
This classic game is always a winner for us when we go out to coffeeshops and cafes but it’s good for at home too – after all it has to be things you can see not things you are going hunting to find!
4 – Musical Bumps
I make no apology for putting down a game similar to musical statues in the same way that no one apologises for having them both at birthday parties. It turns out that the kids parties you went to in the 1980’s were run by mums who had it all properly planned out (ummm, it was the 80’s for you too right?!). Mums sit still, kids go crazy. Kids are happy, you drink your cup of tea. Win.
5 – Baby is Sleeping
This one is from the happy days when my youngest child didn’t sleep through, also known as the first two years of her life (yes, really two whole years.) You lie on your bed and pretend to be a baby (stick with me on this one). Your kids give you milk and then you go to sleep. Sadly it’s only a game though so they get to do something to wake you up at which point you do big baby cries. I pretty much method acted that bit.
So there you go, those are my five pretty awesome games you can play with your kids while lying down on your sofa. If you have any more please add them in the comments section below so I can try them out!
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Photo of toddler dancing, child jumping on bed and child with hands in the air all via Shutterstock
We sometimes play a game where I lie down and raise my knees, the kids take it in turn to sit on them and answer questions. If they get a question wrong my knees drop and they fall onto the bed/sofa – they love it! We also play a similar version where they can’t say yes or no x
I absolutely love this post – just the title alone had me smiling 😉
Haha love this, we often spend an hour or so in bed playing eye spy on a Sunday morning 🙂
Love it! I also remember the 80’s so loved that reference!
Is it okay if I do a repost of this, I am going to be adding an intro and then will refer readers back to your site for your post of course!
Hi Lynn – glad you liked the post! I’m really sorry but I don’t allow my articles to be reposted x
ha, love this. One of my favourites is sleeping lions. I still use it to calm the kids down at parties. Have you seen youtube vid of a guy eating his food like animals? You should show your kids it as it would work well with your How does this animal move … brilliant game 😀