Category: Gross Motor Skills

Garage Raid Obstacle Course

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Obstacle Course (1)

If your kids need to get out some quick energy, look no further than your garage for inspiration. Old sports equipment, old toys, or anything else that will promote gross motor skills is perfect for this activity.

To wit, we pulled out Travis’s old scooter, an old play tunnel, leftover pool noodles, bouncy balls, a cornhole backboard, and a Frisbee. I arranged them in such a way that the items could be moved through as an obstacle course, then challenged Travis to the following:

Ride the scooter up to the tunnel.

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Whack the ball through the tunnel with the pool noodle, then follow it to the other side.

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Once through, toss the Frisbee at the cornhole backboard.

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The reward was bubbles! Travis loved popping them with the pool noodles.

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Little sister wanted to work her way through the course, too!

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We were glad we got out in the morning sunshine for this one.

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Pool-Noodle Hockey

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Pool Noodle Hockey (1)

We needed to get outside at “Camp Mom” this morning, and I knew just the silly summer sport for the kids. Pool noodles for hockey sticks and a giant blown-up beach ball for the puck made the perfect summer props to play an outdoor version of hockey.

Simply set up orange cones as the goal markers and then divide into teams. (In our case, it was Travis versus mommy and little sister).

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Then take turns whacking the beach ball down the field toward your opponent’s goal. First team to 10 points wins!

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Or you don’t even have to keep score. Kids will no doubt just have fun with the mechanics of chasing the beach ball around with the pool noodle, which is sure to elicit delight.

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Climbing Practice

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Climbing Practice (4)

We couldn’t get to the real playground this morning because of rain, so turned the living room into an indoor playground instead! If you’re helping your toddler learn to climb and navigate playground structures (which can be tricky for toddlers!), pillows are an excellent learning opportunity.

Climbing Practice (1)

I set up all the couch pillows in such a way that Veronika could crawl from pillow to pillow and make her way up to the top of the actual couch. She was so excited she threw herself into the mix!

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Her favorite was the squishiest pillow from the back of the couch, which could be crawled up…

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…slid down like a slide…

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…and more. Then she said, “Let’s walk!” “Good idea,” I complimented her, and she was so proud.

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“Good idea!” she parroted, and danced and pranced from pillow to pillow.

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Amazingly, we had no bumps or bruises! I was really happy when she used the pillows as I’d intended, like stairs to reach the top of the couch.

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We did a big round of “hip hip hooray” to celebrate.

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You’ll notice big brother Travis wanted in on the action, too.

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A big heap of pillows is fun no matter how old they get.

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Baby Soccer

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Baby Soccer (5)

Veronika has shown an early interest in balls: bouncing them, catching them, kicking them, you name it! So today I decided we should play a classic round of baby soccer.

I set up orange cones as the goal posts then lifted her from under the arms and swung her legs toward a bouncy ball. “Goal!” I said with excitement.

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She squealed with delight! We continued to play, alternating kicks from up in my arms…

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…with chasing the ball around to kick it with her sturdy little legs.

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Each time she got the ball through the cones, I repeated “Goal!” earning more big smiles of excitement. She knew she’d done something right!

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Of course you can play this game outside, too. Simply set up a make-shift goal with sticks or rocks for markers. Your toddler will love chasing after the ball!

Walking on Pillows

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Walking on Pillows (4)

We had a rainy and overcast day today, and the kids were sad to learn they couldn’t head to the playground, especially since it is only newly reopened in our state. Thinking quickly, I devised this gross motor game for them inside: walking on couch pillows!

We stripped the couch of every single pillow, from the big seat cushions to the little side pillows, and arranged them all in a big line. This alone was a thrill – pillows all over the floor!

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“Walk?” I asked Veronika, who loves to test her balance. She immediately took my hand and walked the pillow course from start to finish.

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Of course then she wanted to do it “all by self”. She was wobbly on the smaller pillows, but so proud.

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On the times she wobbled to her knees, she simply turned it into a crawling course instead, which was equally great for gross motor skills.

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Big brother Travis could even do it backwards.

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She kept trotting over to walk the line over and over again, a sure sign that we had a hit.

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And then of course the couch pillows were perfect for a rest after. “Cozy lie down,” she told me.

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A quick rest, and then she was up to do it again!

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Aside from being great fun, this activity was excellent for building balance. So we had the perfect playground for our rainy day.

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Chair Maze

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Chair Maze (7)

This game is perfect when you want your toddler to fit in some gross motor play, but can’t get to the playground. I simply set up chairs all around her playroom, and encouraged Veronika to come on over.

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You can see her glee!

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I thought she might need to be enticed with a “hunt” for rings from a stacking toy, but she needed no encouragement. Instead, she just scrambled on up.

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Once on top of the chairs, she proudly swung her legs. She knew this was big brother’s chair!

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She still needs help with climbing down safely, so this was great practice.

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The highchair was perfect for crawling under, of course.

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She spent a little while scrambling up and down and all around, but then I needed to give her a way to play that required less supervision. This time, we lined the chairs up in a train with stuffed animal passengers.

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She loved making sure everyone was in their proper seat.

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This kept her so busy that I didn’t worry about her climbing into a chair and falling off while my back was turned. A low, soft orange chair was the perfect place to cuddle up with her train companions.

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“Hello!” she said to the big white dog in the next seat.

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How does your toddler get exercise indoors? Please share in the comments!

Easy Scarf Pull Activity

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Scarf Pull (3)

This gross motor skill activity for toddlers is sure to tantalize!

For set up, attach containers to the wall with painter’s tape. These could be empty paper towel tubes or old bottles or really any container through which you can pull a scarf. For the bottles, you’ll need to cut off the closed end first. Make sure to tape over any sharp or jagged edges. I used two empty juice bottles, but water bottles or even an empty gallon jug would work!

Scarf Pull (1)

While Veronika was napping, I secured these to the wall and stuffed a scarf into each with the end dangling out.

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She came wandering over mildly curious. Because she loves draping herself in scarves, I thought she would be so into this.

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Surprisingly, she really only gave each one a single tug through its tunnel, but then lost interest. She showed a bit more interest about the containers themselves, and how they were stuck to the wall.

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Well, at least we got in a little gross motor play as she pulled those scarves. Your kids may want to stuff the scarves back into the containers and play this game over and over.

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Follow the Leader

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Follow the Leader (1)

Veronika has taken five steps forward on her own… but she’s reluctant to do so and will drop to a crawl more often than not. Today, I was hoping a good old-fashioned game of Follow the Leader might inspire her forward.

We started out with a few copying moves (almost like ‘Simon Says‘) to get her in a follow-along mood. Could she tap sticks like me?

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Stomp her feet like me?

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(Note: We have a silly sloth toy that claps its hands and moves to the beat. Toys like these are also great to teach your toddler to play copycat).

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Now it was time to follow the leader! Big brother marched ahead and we sang “We’re Following the Leader” as we marched around the apartment.

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Finally, I let go of her hands and kept marching to see if she would continue to follow. It’s still a work in progress, but this was a great game to set her steps in motion!

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Don’t forget to play a reverse version and let your toddler be the leader. I took a few minutes to copy her moves, whether crawling after her or tapping our tummies, and she loved being the one in charge!

Bucket of Balls

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Bucket of Balls (6)

While big brother and I were playing math games with balls, I tailored some ball play to Veronika. The set-up? Just grab a bucket and fill it with a variety of balls; that’s it!

From there, I had no agenda for her (like past games that worked on gross motor skills or vocab) but was interested instead to see what she would be inspired to do with this simple set-up.

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First she dug through, pulling out the balls in turn. Then it was so much fun to upend the bucket and watch the balls go rolling.

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I helped her scamper after the balls so we could add them back in one at a time with a “plink”!

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Of course the bucket itself was a toy, too.

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As she played, I did chime in with a few words about the texture of each ball. Some were squishy, some were hard, and there was lots of color variation to discuss, too.

The bumpy one on her belly was the most fun of all!

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Have a Ball with Math

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Ball with Math (1)

Travis has shown a keen interest in numbers and basic math lately. So today we had a ball (literally!), playing games that played around with numbers and worked his gross motor skills.

First up, we played backwards toss. Toss a ball back and forth, but instead of counting up each catch, count down. This is a great way to introduce the idea of subtraction, even before a child is ready for equations. Touchdown!

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Next we returned to counting up, but used skip counting. He loved grasping how the numbers went from 5 to 10 to 15 to 20 and so forth up to 100. Plus I noticed improvement in his hand-eye coordination even over the course of a few rounds!

After school, we played a kicking game. I cut three holes in a piece of cardboard, each hole worth different points, again using skip-counting by 5s.

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Travis was in charge of the tally!

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I showed him how to make tally marks in bundles of 5, which we then totted up to find out our final scores.

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Score one for the math team!