25 Quick & Easy Ways to Get Kids Moving Indoors

Marla Szwast
4 min readJan 30, 2021
Triple plank photo by author.

Ever wonder why kids have trouble concentrating on rainy days? I mean, when it’s yucky, cold, and gray outside, why should they be distracted from schoolwork? It’s not like they have anything better to do.

Our brains are oxygen hogs. And the more we think, the more neurons are being built, the faster we use up that oxygen. We don’t get enough oxygen for serious brain work just by sitting around in a chair all day. To get enough oxygen to our brain for serious sustained mental work we need to work our bodies. We need to push our heartbeat and breathing out of the resting zone and into the intense activity zone.

This is even more important for kids. Their brains have a lot of building to do. If we want them to actually build neurons and learn something while they are sitting in their chair doing their schoolwork, we have to ensure that the level of oxygen they need is available to them.

This can be a challenge anytime of year, but is often hardest to achieve during those cold dreary months of the year. The lack of exercise tends to build up to a point where are kids are basically just struggling through their work in a trance. As adults, most of us have experienced moments, days, or even weeks of brain fog. In fact, many of us drink coffee to pull us out of that foggy mode.

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Marla Szwast

A mom who writes, in the cracks of time, between educating, chauffeuring and feeding half a dozen kids. Top writer in Parenting.