Today was the first warm day we have had in almost a week and so when my eldest daughter asked me if we could do an outside activity I didn’t hesitate at all. I didn’t have anything in particular in mind and when I asked my children what they wanted to do; my eldest declared that she wanted “to practice her sense of balance”. Surprise, surprise! She is currently obsessed and those of you who have been following the blog this month will know that we have been focusing on balance. I unfortunately don’t have any balance beams in my garden so we improvised with some items I had lying around.
What you need:
• Some coloured card shapes (I had these neon stars that are often used for sale signage)
• Some coloured bags (that preferably correspond with the card colours)
• Some string or masking tape (if it is windy)
Stick down two lines of tape (or string). This is what the children will walk and balance on.
Line up your coloured bags at one end of the string and place the coloured shapes at the other.
Get your children to collect a coloured shape, walk and balance along the tape and place the shape in the corresponding bag.
My 2 year old got too excited to stick to the tape and I had to reset her a few times but my 4 year old loved it. So much so that we had to extend their tape lines so that they could walk all the way to the trampoline to bounce.
We also took to the garden and flowerbeds to practice balancing on other surfaces. This also went very well until my 2 year old lost her balance and fell into a rose bush. Have a look at the video we made (of the balancing that is, not my little one falling into a rose bush).