One balloon activity most people are familiar with is Keep It Up/Keepy Uppy. The goal is to keep the balloon in the air as long as possible by hitting it back and forth. There are lots of ways to mix this game up and make it more challenging or change the focus of the activity. First, have your child only use a specific body part such as a foot, elbow, or head. Second, allow your child to use any body part except for the hands. Third, when playing with a partner, take turns hitting the balloon. No one is allowed to hit it more than once in a row. Fourth, without a partner, alternate which hand you are using with each hit. Make it even more fun by taking turns with each hand, foot, the head, and the bottom. Fifth, you can even throw in more challenge by adding other body parts such as the knee, elbow, back of the foot/heel, or shoulder. Have your child hit them in a specific pattern, or call out random body parts. Get creative. For instance: right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, head, and then repeat the pattern.  Sixth, have your child stand on a pillow, cushion, or balance disc while playing.

These variations can be great for working on balance, coordination, sequencing, and cognition.

One special note here! If you have a child who “w” sits, have them play Keepy Uppy while seated cross legged.

A balloon can be used in place of a ball and turn many activities into a balloon activity instead. This can be great for working on technique, or slowing down a skill your child is having trouble with. Balloons slow movement often gives children more time to react.  Substitute a balloon for a soccer ball and kick it around. Whack a balloon back and forth in the air using tennis rackets, badminton rackets, or pickleball rackets. You can even balance a balloon on a tee and practice hitting it with a bat.  Playing catch is great with a balloon as well.

These balloon activities are all great for working on ball skills and coordination.

One of my favorites to play with my daughters is balloon bowl catch. We each take a bowl that is just larger than the inflated balloon and use it to catch the balloon. After it is caught, the person picks it up and hits it back to the other person, who then has to catch it in their own bowl. I have mixed it up by having my daughter jump off the couch to catch the balloon as well. We have also mixed it up using our second story. Our second story has a pony wall, so I hit the balloon over the wall down to the first floor. Then my daughter will walk up the stairs to bring it back to me.

This can be great for working on cardio, coordination, ball skills, and stairs, depending on how you play.

You can even work on balance using balloon activities. One option is to place a balloon on the floor and have your child place one foot on top of it. See how long your child can stand like this with one foot on the floor and one on the inflated balloon.  Make sure your child tries with both feet.  Mix it up by having the child place his/her hands on her hips, close his/her eyes, play catch, or do some other activity while standing like this.

Another great activity is to have your child balance an inflated balloon on a specific body part. This can be any body part. Again, get creative. Can he/she balance the balloon on a single finger?  How about on his/her knee? Balancing a balloon on the head can be really challenging and fun at the same time.  See if they can keep it balanced while moving as well.

Want to burn off some energy? Try the balloon run. This is a great balloon activity to keep your child moving.  Tie a string or ribbon to turn your balloon into a kite. Have your child walk or run around without allowing the balloon to touch the floor. The longer your string, the harder the challenge. They can even do zig zags, walk backwards, or sideways to up the challenge. Make it more entertaining by adding silly walks at the same time. Can your child walk like lion while holding the string in his/her teeth and still keep the balloon off the floor?

Help your child work on lung capacity and strengthen the muscles that assist in breathing by blowing the balloon. You can have races and see who can blow their balloon across the finish line first. Or have your child blow the balloon along a taped path that zig zags or turns. You can make this more challenging by using a straw. The wider the mouth of the straw, the easier the challenge.  Just make sure to watch for hyperventilation!  Another great alternative is inflating balloons.  The fresher the balloon, the harder it is to inflate. Again, you can make it harder by placing a straw in the neck of the balloon and having them inflate it through the straw.

Vestibular

For those kids who are sensory seekers, or if your child’s Occupational Therapist said they should get some spinning in, here’s a great activity. All you have to do is tie a string to the balloon and have your child spin while holding the string. You can up the fun by giving them multiple balloons on strings and have them pretend to be a tornado.

Auditory

For those kids who face challenges in regards to sounds, here are a couple ideas. First, inflate a balloon but do not tie it off.  Using both hands, grip the neck of the balloon on each side and pull outwards to make the balloon squeal as it releases the air. Second, fill the balloon up loosely with something. I like marbles, but rice, beans, popcorn kernels, and other things can work as well. Tie the knot to keep everything inside.  Now your child can shake it or toss it around and listen to the objects inside make noise.

Tactile

Finally, we have the kids who are tactile defensive or tactile seeking. These kids are the ones who crave or shy away from being touches or from specific textures. Both of these activities have a similar setup.  To start, you are going to fill up some balloons with anything and everything you can think of. Some great ideas to get you started include: rice, coffee beans, coffee grounds (dry), water beads, dice, water, salt, slime, play dough, popcorn, sand, shaving cream, hair gel, flour, dry uncooked beans, cornstarch, sugar, or marbles. Again, this list isn’t all inclusive. Tie a knot to keep it all inside.  For one of the activities, you only need one balloon filled with each item, and for the other, fill 2 balloons with each item so that they all have a match.  If you want to make the matches easier on you, you can make sure the matches are both the same color, or write a letter or number on them with a permanent marker.

Activity one is pretty simple. It just involves letting your child play, squish, and interact with the various balloons.  Activity two is a matching game. Have your child close his/her eyes and feel the various balloons. The goal is to identify which 2 balloons are filled with the same things strictly by touch.

First up on our strengthening exercises is the balloon bridge. Many of you know what a bridge is.  You lay on the floor on your back with your knees bent. Then you lift up your bottom to make a bridge with your body.  This is a variation of that exercise. Inflate and tie off a balloon, but don’t make it massive. The balloon is placed between your child’s knees. They must then lift their bottom off of the ground without the balloon popping or falling. One tip, have your child cross his/her arms or placer his/her arms on her shoulders so they can’t cheat and use their arms to push up.

This exercise is great for hip and bottom strength, and throws in a little core strengthening as well.

Our second suggested exercise has 2 variations.  These are both based on the crab walk. The crab walk is where a child walks using their hands and feet, with their stomach facing up to the ceiling. Variation number one involves playing keepy uppy while maintaining the crab walk position and crab walking around the room. They can use hands, feet, or their head to keep the balloon up in the air.  Variation number two is about balance. Once your child has assumed the crab walk position, balance an inflated balloon on his/her stomach. The goal is now for him/her to crab walk across the room or to a finish line while keeping the balloon balanced without it falling off.

This is great for strengthening the bottom, core, hips, and shoulders. It even throws in a little bit of neck strength as well.