Game for active child.

Ingredients:
  -- one energetic child (approx 2 to 5 years old)
  -- one adult (OK if adult is tired, pregnant, maybe even
       busy nursing a baby)
  -- a clear straight path, about the length of 2 rooms
  -- a stick or broomhandle, or (safer) a long cardboard tube 
       from wrapping paper, or other long object

How to play:
  Adult stands or sits just off the path, near the middle, holding the
stick out to block the path.  Child runs back and forth along
the path.  Whenever child gets to the stick, adult pulls the
stick out of the way just in time so the child can keep running.

Laughter is encouraged.

Variations:  pull the stick away in the same direction the
child is going;  or up;  or down, and the child has to
jump over it (be careful with expectations and safety!!);
leave the stick where it is, so the child unexpectedly has
to stop (again, think about safety!  warn that this might
happen sometimes, or use a softer stick, or hold it gently so
the child can push it out of the way, etc.)

The variations encourage laughter.  Try to do the unexpected,
and invent your own variations.  (But think first about whether
each action is safe.)

I usually liked to move the stick in a circle, coming back
rapidly to where it was while letting the child through
(a motion something like a skipping rope).

Cathy Woodgold
http://www.ncf.ca/~an588/par_home.html