There are certain things that only happen at the point when all the elements come together. Creating an in-house obstacle course was, for us, one of those things.
It sounds really easy. And is so awesome, everybody really should try it sometime. And I have been wanting to make a more large scale one for the kids for a long time.
But in order for this to happen, the house has to be decently in order, the kids have to be relatively rested, I have to have a small surplus of energy because my kids are not at all self-sufficient at organizing this kind of thing yet, and vast amounts of coffee have to have already been consumed before we start.
These are great rainy/snowy/step-outside-and-your-boogers-instantly-freeze day activities.
Ours is highly sensory organized, but remember that a lot of kids are not really getting the real amount of sensory input that their bodies really need on a daily basis. My kids just literally fall apart if they don't, while the average child just might be a little extra grumpy or "hyper".
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Kit got pretty upset with me at the very beginning because she just wanted to line all the animals up in the "river". And was overwhelmed at first by all the change of purpose in items she has set rules for. So she followed me around biting on her hands and asking me to hold her for most of the course and refused to participate in most of it. But! She didn't freak out and start yelling at the big kids as they did it, so that it a success!
I think if we were able to leave it out for several days and let her get used to it, she would be running the thing like an old pro in no time, but, alas, we have not nearly enough floor space as it is. And all that stuff all over the place for days would send Grandpa into major meltdown mode himself. In fact, I was entirely relieved that the entire time we had it up, he didn't come out of his room at all! Thankful for peace in all it's forms!
1 - Throw a ball from one basket into another then back as best you can!
Sensory work: balance, hand eye coordination, gross motor cooperation
2 - Use tongs to pick up wooden blocks from one basket and transfer into the other.
Sensory work: Squeezing pressure, controlled fine motor coordination, hand-eye, cross body
3 - Try to lasso Charlie!
Sensory: motor movement to swing and throw, hand-eye
4 - Pull a passenger to the trampoline!
Sensory work: heavy work, proprioceptive
5 - Do ten full body jumps on trampoline, like tuck jumps, split jumps anything more than plain strait jumps.
Sensory work: vestibular, proprioceptive
6 - Crawl through the "bear cave" (tunnel filled with stuffed animals) without knocking any of them out!
Sensory work: crawling, full body engagement, tolerating unexpected sensation, tactile
7 - Stay inside hula hoop on the floor while tossing a scarf up with one hand and catching with the opposite hand, stand on one foot if it is too easy.
Sensory work: cross body movements, balance, hand eye
8 - Several times around on the sit-n-spin.
Sensory work: vestiubular, balance
9 - Three curl downs and curl ups.
Sensory work: balance, vestibular (upside down),
10 - Walk the line.
Sensory work: balance, cross body with feet, foot-eye coordination
11 - Rescue 5 animals from the river without stepping out of the river.
Sensory work: Balance, hand-eye, vestibular (from bending down and up)
12 - Ten more full body jumps on the trampoline.
Sensory work: vestibular, balance
13 - Blanket pull to Charlie.
Sensory work: heavy work, proprioceptive
14 - Try to lasso Charlie again.
Sensory work: hand-eye, gross motor movement
15 - Using tongs again, transfer blocks from one container to the other.
Sensory work: fine motor, squeezing, hand-eye, cross body
16- Toss ball from one basket to the other and back again.
Sensory work: motor cooperation, hand-eye, balance
(So glad Little Miss Grumpy Pants finally decided to join in!)
THE END!
Repeat circuit as many times as desired.
We ran ours forward and backward a couple of times!
And Kit decided to end it by riding Charlie off into the sunset...sort of. :)
Can't wait ti do it again!
Ha! Looks like fun. Can parents do it too! Wait... where is the vat/barrel of coffee?! ;)
ReplyDeletewow! awesome job on creating that super fun obstacle course! can we come try it?! ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks! And the more the merrier!
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