Activity 2: Riding a bike (Balance)

Riding a bike is great for balance. Ideally parents should encourage and teach children through the phase of using stabilisers, as balance skills are much better learnt once the bike is free to wobble. 

Activity 4: Bat and ball (Co-ordination)

It is essential to continue developing hand-eye co-ordination at the age, and a great way to do this is by using bat and ball games. Table-tennis in particular is popular with the age-group. A child on their own can benefit well from playing bat and ball against a wall. As suggested for the 5-7 year age-group, swingball is a popular game for children also.

Tip: You can get many of the benefits and enjoyment of table-tennis even if you don't have a table to play on. Just get a bat each and a few table-tennis balls and play while kneeling on a hard floor.

Progress: Try kicking a football against a wall. This is great for the development of football techniques, and can be brilliant for balance and co-ordination.

Activity 5: Passing a ball while on the move (Balance, Proprioception and Co-ordination)

This activity is similar to throwing and catching, except that it is done while moving. For example, you work with your child to throw and catch a ball from one area to another. You could use the rules of Netball or Basketball to help you - so you can either bounce the ball to move (Basketball), or you cannot move when you have  the ball (Netball).

Progress: Try using feet instead of hands, and kick the ball between you from one area to another.

Activity 6: Skipping, bounding and hopping (Strength and Balance)

Try different forms of movement. Aim for smooth, efficient and quick movements. When hopping allow time to balance between hops. 

Bounding is like a very long hop from one leg to another. The idea is to spring from one leg by driving upwards powerfully. Aim for height and length and to land on the other foot, letting your knee bend to absorb the impact. The photo shows a man bounding. Click here for a video. Regular bounding practice can help develop leg strength and good balance.

Activity 7: Swimming (Strength and Co-ordination)

Swimming is an excellent all-round exercise. 

Progress: Think of fun games and challenges to play in the water. This could be for example a game of water polo where children need to retreive a ball and throw it a goal to score points.

Activity 8: Two ball activities (Co-ordination)

Throwing and catching and sending and receiving skills and be enhanced by the extra challenge of using two objects at the same time. As the video shows, there are various ways of challenging yourself.

Progress: With a partner, try to throw and catch one ball between you while simultaneously kicking and controlling another ball with your feet.

Activity 9: Climbing trees (Agility, Strength, Balance and Co-ordination)

This age-old activity deserves a come-back. Trees are awesome places to explore, and climbing them involves so many of the major movement skills that time spent in a tree is seriously good learning time.

Questions for finding the right tree:

• Am I allowed to climb this tree?
• Are the tree's branches big enough to support me?
• Is the tree safe to climb?

Children should be supervised when climbing trees.

Activity 10: Dance (Balance, Co-ordination and Flexibility)

Many children will be best motivated to exercise by music and dance. This is great, as dance can encorporate many of the fundamental movement skills (FMS). 

Click here to try Change4Life's "Let's Dance" steps and games.

Tip: To make the best use of dance for the development of FMS, make sure you include squats, lunges, jumps, hops, reaches, twists and turns.

Activity 12: Monkey bars (Strength)

Monkey bars at playgrounds offer the chance to develop strength by swinging from one bar to the next.

Progress: Try to move along the bars backwards.

Activity 13: Learning to juggle (Co-ordination and Proprioception)

Juggling is fun to learn, and is great for hand-eye co-ordination and proprioception.

The video on the right shows you how...

Activity 14: Tug of war (Strength)

A mini-game of Tug of War can be a good way to develop strength. Tug of War requires a long rope or similar and a person or small team of people at each end. Each person or team tries to pull the rope in their direction, and wins if they get the rope past a certain point.

To play this successfully with children it is recommended that an adult be on one side and children on the other. That way the adult can adjust the challenge such that the children have to work hard to be successful.