Hop to It!
Drawing inspiration from everyone’s favorite chocolate rabbit, I’ll be sharing another of my favorite indoor games this week. This one is both physically active and educational, for those who want to take that extra leap. All you need is six-sided die. Personally, I’m a big fan of the giant, foam ones, but any dice will do. (Just be careful they don’t do under the couch!
Hop to It: How to Play
Now that you have your die, find an open space in the house. You can use the living room, a play room, or even a hallway! Roll the die and wait to see which number it lands on. Here’s where the educational part comes in. For dice where a number is displayed, kids can be asked to identify which number it is. For the more traditional dice with the dots, kids can be asked to count the dots to see how many there are. It’s a fun, easy way to get them interested in numbers and get them practicing. Enough about that, though. Here comes the fun part!
Once you know what number is on the die, that’s how many hops you have to reach it! If you rolled a six, that means making six little hops. If you rolled a one, that means one great big hop. Don’t worry if it looks like too far a space to make it across in one hop. Parents are allowed to help!
The key to Hop to It is to be engaged and participate. That’s not hard with how fun it is, though! You can also add music and make up more rules as you do along. I’ve played with one little boy who liked to throw his die by placing it on his head and then letting it roll off! It didn’t go very far, but he had fun doing it. As long as you’re having fun, you can’t go wrong!
So, what are you waiting for? Hop to It!
