Do you want some fun indoors activities that your kids can try at home for free?

Do you need easy things to add to a home-schooling curriculum or just while your children are home from school? Here’s five fun circus activities that you can try at home with things you probably already have around the house. Let’s get started!

•Plastic Bag Balancing  •Toothbrush Spinning •Cushion Padiddling  •Beanbag Juggling •Sock Poi Twirling

Safety Warning – Read This First!

I take no responsibility for any damage you might do to yourself with a toothbrush, a pair of socks and a handful of lentils. But seriously: be careful of yourself and others. Make sure you have enough space around you to attempt these skills safely without breaking anything valuable like that window over there. All activities undertaken at your own risk!

Plastic Bag Balancing

You can take a regular cheap plastic bag and balance it on various parts of your body. It works with thin or thick ones and it’s much easier indoors where it won’t be affected by wind. First make sure you have enough space and you’re not going to bump into anything. Then prepare your bag:

Take one of the bottom corners of the bag with the fingertips of one hand and let your hand and the bag point downwards. With your other hand make a fist around the bag as close to the fingers of the first hand as possible. Squeezing tightly pull your fist down the bag until it slides off the end. Repeat this step a few times until the bag seems straight.

Now you’re ready to balance it. Take the bag and carefully turn it the other way up.  Place it in the middle of your flat palm and let go. It will start to fall over. To balance it you need to keep moving your hand underneath the bag so that it stays upright. This is easier if you look at the very top of the bag.

Things to try: using your other hand, standing on one leg, sitting down, doing a little dance, balancing it on different parts of your body (e.g. back of hand, elbow, shoulder, chin or your foot) or even two at once! The next stage up would be balancing something harder like a walking stick or an umbrella.

Extra Tips

If the bag is really thin you’re going to need to turn it over (to place it on your hand) very carefully to keep it straight. Whereas if it’s very thick you might need to twist the bag a bit to get it to stay together (the twisting movement is like wringing water out of wet clothes).

If it’s just falling over every time you might not be doing enough to correct it. If you just stay still it’ll fall over! Try doing more or less and see if that makes a difference. It takes a little bit of  time to learn to correct just the right amount.

Toothbrush Spinning

This is a fun skill that some people can do straight away. It took me a little while to learn though so don’t be disheartened if you don’t get it immediately. I don’t recommend doing this with a mouth toothbrush. If you do it after cleaning your teeth then the toothbrush will, for some unknown reason, always end up in the toilet. I recommend using an old toothbrush and marking it with a bit of tape to make it a circus toothbrush. Slightly firmer bristled toothbrushes are easier to spin.

First hook the toothbrush onto your pointer finger and hold it with the other hand (horizontal with the bristles pointing down). Release the toothbrush and feel how it completes half a circle without you doing anything. Now when you release the toothbrush make a little circle with your finger and see if you can make it spin around one whole turn. If it’s not working try circling the other way – one way should feel right. Now it’s just a case of repeating this exercise and then building up the number of spins. Eventually you’ll be able to keep it going.

Once you can do it with one hand try doing it with the other. The next skill that’s worth learning is to start the toothbrush spinning with just one hand. Once you can do both these things you can try spinning two at once! It’s also possible to spin the toothbrush horizontally or to spin multiple toothbrushes on the same finger! A nice finish is to throw the toothbrush up from the spin and catch it in your hand (or hat!) You can even spin many toothbrushes at once if you line them up on a flowerstick hand-stick (a flowerstick is another circus toy). I’m also a fan of balancing the toothbrushes by connecting either 2 or 4 together (see video on the left). Toothbrushes are MUCH harder to balance than bags so be prepared to do a lot of practicing.

Extra Tips

If the toothbrush is slippery or has soft bristles it can be pretty hard to spin. So if in doubt blame the toothbrush. Why not visit a friend and try spinning their toothbrush, perhaps over the toilet bowl? That’s a joke. Don’t do that. That’s nasty. Sometimes I find it easier to spin the toothbrush if I moisten my finger slightly first. For some reason it seems to give me slightly more grip. But obviously if you are constantly dropping the toothbrush and licking your finger your going to pick up lots of germs so do so at your own risk. A more sensible approach would be to use a little water in a glass or a moist sponge. For an easier alternative you can push two toothbrushes facing each other together and then spin them with your finger in-between.

Cushion Padiddling

This skill is a little harder than the last two and extremely dependent on the cushion. You want a cushion that is made of a not too slippy fabric and you want it to be under filled so it sags down a little around your finger when you place your finger in the center of the cushion. You can push on either side of the cushion in the middle to try and push the filling out of the center and more to the edges. In extreme situations I’ll even punch the center of the cushion, but I don’t necessarily recommend this (treat your props how you’d like them to treat you).

With the pad of your pointer finger in the center, grab the corner closest to you with your other hand and give the cushion a nice flat spin. Don’t do anything with your finger, just feel how the cushion pushes on it. This tells you the movement you’re going to have to do. Now try again and this time make a small circular movement to keep the cushion spinning. When your finger starts to slip out you have to pull it quickly back to the center and then keep going. It’s quite tricky and will probably take you a while to get really good at it.

Once you can spin it on one hand you can try learning with the other hand. If you learn with the cushion spinning in the same direction for both hands then you can learn to pass it from hand to hand. You could try walking around the cushion while trying to keep it spinning in one place. Another fun trick to try is little throws. Remember to bring your hand down with the cushion to catch it. This cushions the descent of cushion and will make things cushier. Try learning to start the cushion with one hand: spread your fingers wide underneath it and spin it while throwing it up slightly. You could even try spinning two cushions at once. You can spin a cushion on a stick (or toothbrush) using the movement. This same padiddling movement can be used to spin a flat rigid object like a book or cafeteria tray. It’s a bit harder but definitely learnable.

Extra Tips

If the cushion is light you can just use one finger, but sometimes I use all my fingers pushed together if it’s a heavy cushion.

What perplexes me is the riddle of how to paradiddle a padiddle in the middle of a fiddle (or similar stringèd instrument).

These skills are challenging. You might get them in less than an hour or it might take you days, weeks or even months. The key is practicing smart and often. Try and do a little each day. Start with the easy exercises, break tricks down and then make things harder. Celebrate improvements however small they are. The most important thing is your attitude towards the practice: ENJOY IT! If it wasn’t difficult it wouldn’t be impressive. The longer it takes to learn a skill the more fun it generally is to do. Appreciate the journey. Also dressing nice helps.

Beanbag Juggling

This skill is going to take a little while to get so we should probably start straight away! First let’s make some juggling beanbags. You could use tennis balls if you have three lying around, but I think these are easier and more customizable in terms of weight and size. You’re going to need three smallish old socks and something to put in them (not feet) such as flaxseed, millet, birdseed or lentils. I put 1/3 of a cup of lentils in each of mine. I’d start there and then make it heavier or lighter depending on the filling and your fortitude.

Pour the filling into the sock. I just pull the sock over my measuring cup but you could use a plastic funnel or even use a piece of paper as a funnel. Then put one hand inside the sock and twist just above the filling with your other hand and push the twisted off section back inside and through the sock. We don’t need to pack the filling tightly, we want the beanbags to be slightly loose so that they are easier to catch. Repeat this twisting and pulling through until you have a ballish-shaped beanbag. If you need to you can put a rubber band on it if it won’t stay balled up. Make three and then we are good to go!

Now let’s learn to juggle. Most people start with two and throw them in a circular pattern. This pattern is called a 2-ball shower and I’m not going to teach you it because people can often do it pretty instinctively. Instead we’re going to skip straight to the good stuff: the 3-ball cascade.

Throw one ball from hand to hand at just above head height. Catch with you arms in a relaxed position, elbows loosely  down by your sides – try not to reach up to catch. See if you can do this without reaching or stepping forwards or backwards. Next let’s try two. Throw one up and across like we were just doing, and when it’s at its peak throw the other one up and across underneath it. To start with don’t even bother catching them. Just try and get a nice even pattern -imagine a big ‘X’ in front of you – with them both going at the same height and landing close to your feet. When you feel comfortable with this you can try catching them. It’s worth getting really good at this exercise before moving onto three balls. Also try starting with the other hand.

With three we’re going to do the same thing as we did with two but now we can keep the pattern going. Start with two in one hand and one in the other. The hand with two in is going to start. We’ll again start by not catching the balls. Throw them one at a time up and across making a big ‘X’ shape and each one goes just above head height. Always throw when the one before peaks. Try and make them land close to your feet. When this feels comfortable try catching them. Once you can catch them you could try doing 4 throws, then 5 then try and keep going.

Juggling is hard. Don’t worry if it takes you a while to get. Keep practicing and you’ll almost certainly get it eventually.

Extra Tips

Practice the first exercises with one and two balls for much longer than you think you need to. If you find yourself walking forward as you juggle try standing in front of a wall. If you get bored of constantly picking up the beanbags you can stand over a bed or sofa so you don’t have to reach down so far. Try counting how many throws you get and each time you practice try and get one more.

Below are some other tricks to try when you’ve started to get thirty throws or more with the 3-ball cascade:

Tennis

Trying throwing over the incoming ball instead of under it. First try from one hand then the other. If you throw just one ball over the top each time then you get a pattern called “tennis”. You can see that in the video above where the green ball is going back and forth.

Reverse Cascade

If you throw every throw over the top you get the “reverse cascade”.

2 in 1 Hand

Start with two balls in one hand and throw in inside to outside circles. This is the basis of the 4-ball fountain which is 2 in 1 hand on both sides.

Sock Poi Twirling

The word “Poi” comes from a similar dance done by the Māori people of New Zealand. We’re going to make our own poi using knee-high socks. First we’re going to need something to make them heavier at one end. This can be done with something like flaxseed, millet, birdseed or lentils. Take about a 1/3 of a cup (you can modify this if you want them a different size/weight). Put the filling into the bottom of the sock. Then reach inside the sock, and with the other hand twist the sock around the filling (you can reinforce this with a rubber band if you like) and push the ball inside the sock and pull it through. Do the same thing again so now the sock is the right way out and there’s a ball of filling secure at the bottom of the sock. Tie a simple knot at the other end to give it a handle. Now make a second one and you have a set of sock poi!

Side Spinning and Basic Turns

Start by spinning the poi forwards at your sides. Spin them so they are down at the same time. Try and keep them neatly at your sides with your arms relaxed. Don’t let them angle inwards or outwards. When we turn halfway around our poi will be spinning backwards, so first let’s learn backwards spinning the same way we learnt forwards. Again try and get it as neat as possible. When you can spin comfortably in both directions it’s time to try turning. Start the poi spinning forwards and then bring both poi DOWN in front of you as you turn halfway around. Your poi should now be spinning backwards. If not then you did something slightly different. To turn back when your poi are spinning backwards we’re going to lift our poi UP and in front of us. With any luck your poi will now be spinning forwards again. If you can’t get this with two poi at once you could try learning one hand at a time.

The 2-Beat Weave

Start by spinning the poi on either side of you at the same time. Now we’re going to try crossing our arms while the poi are spinning! Go slowly because you don’t want to hit yourself anywhere unpleasant. This movement as a bit like criss cross jump rope (crossing your arms while jumping rope). If you find it too difficult you can try it one poi at a time. Spin a circle on one side of your body and then on the other. When you’ve mastered it with each hand separately try it with two again. Lastly we’re going to do this move with the poi passing our body one after the other (split time). Start by speeding up one poi until it’s in front of the other one, then try and stay in this timing. Instead of them going duh duh duh (together) they are now going da-duh, da-duh, da-duh (one poi is ‘da’ the other is ‘duh’).

Further Information

Balancing Objects: If you want more ideas and advice on balancing objects then check out this youtube video from Coach Bob (half of the wonderful duo Bob and Trish). Or here’s a crazy history of some of the stuff performers have balanced on themselves by juggling historian David Cain.

Toothbrush Spinning: I’m afraid I can’t think of any other really good toothbrush spinning resources for taking your spinning to the next level. I guess my advice is to get creative. Try mixing toothbrush spinning with some of the other skills on this page e.g. toothbrush spinning in one hand and bag balancing in the other. You could try juggling them (which is pretty hard) and or perhaps pen-spinning them.

Cushion Padiddling: The word “padiddling” seems to come from frisbee players in the 70s (and is unrelated to the car game). It is not the same movement that is generally used to keep a basketball spinning on your finger. For that the finger is typically kept still and all the spin put on the ball at the start or the ball is tapped/brushed with the other hand to keep it spinning. If you’re looking for cushion spinning inspiration then check out “antipodism” or “foot juggling”. Here’s a routine where a very talented lady called Feven Zewdie is spinning cushions with her hands and feet! Then at the end with two hands and one foot while balancing a table on her other foot! Another similar skill is pizza spinning. Here’s a suitably impressive video of someone spinning pizza dough.

Poi Twirling: If you want to learn more poi I’d recommend the free lessons on the website PlayPoi from Nick Woolsey or the beginner poi spinning series on the DrexFactor Poi youtube channel. If you want to get an idea of what traditional Māori poi looks like then check out this video. Or for a different take on poi here’s one of my favorite poi videos by a very talented gentlemen called Jonathan Alvarez – it’s somewhere between an inspirational talk, a piece of art and a phenomenal display of technical poi spinning ability.

Beanbag Juggling: A quick search will reveal lots of good juggling resources on the net. Thom Wall has a great summary of learning to juggle resources so here’s a link to that. Or for some inspiration here’s Anthony Gatto (one of the greatest technical jugglers ever) doing a little juggling at the age of 9.

If you want to try making better juggling beanbags for yourself then here’s how to make pyramid shaped beanbags. Although obviously don’t chook them. I’m sharing this link because most other explanations overcomplicate it. You don’t need to invisible hand sew the last seam you can just machine it and leave it visible. Or you can make round beanbags which is slightly harder to do but makes an easier to juggle beanbag. I am not a fan of the ubiquitous balloon-and-sand method of juggling ball construction – balloons are rarely made for longevity and sand always manages to get into unpleasant places.

If you want to buy any circus toys it’s best not to buy something really cheap from Walmart or a chain toy store. They tend to be hard to use and often won’t last very long. I’d talk to a reputable juggling supplier who can tell you what’s most suited to your needs. I recommend the following: Renegade Juggling, Flowtoys and Firetoys

Lastly if you want to watch a video of me balancing a bike on my face, juggling basketballs and doing some other fun circus skills all set to overly dramatic music then click here or if you want to book a children’s entertainer in san diego click here.  Thanks for reading this. Please upload videos of you doing any of these skills and link to this page so I can see what you’ve learnt. Please comment below with any questions or thoughts on this post. Cheers.

About Steve Bags

Bags has been teaching and performing circus skills since before the beginning of time. He has a love of circus that borders on obsessional. His claim to fame is that he once juggled on an episode of Dr Who. He can also balance a flaming bike on his chin while hula-hooping which is an exceedingly useful skill. He's generally to be found spinning, juggling or balancing stuff on his face at mostly inappropriate times and places.