Obstacle Course for young children

In preschools, obstacle course is one of the common activities to promote children's motor skills. Equipment such as bean bags, hula-hoops, cones, and mini hurdles are commonly used for the obstacle course activities. Obstacle course enhances children's motor skills development in areas such as:

• Eye-hand coordination
• Locomotor skills (jumping, hopping, running, etc)
• Non-locomotor skills (balancing, bending, twisting, etc)
• Manipulative skills (throwing, catching, rolling, etc)

Other than enhancing children's motor skills in their early years, there are other benefits as well! With the different activities integrated in the obstacle course, children are also tapping on their:

• Spatial awareness
• Body awareness
• Problem solving skills

While being engaged in the obstacle course, children would go through the process of mental action on how they would complete the obstacle tasks, hence tapping on their cognitive skills. Furthermore, children will also gain more awareness on how they could utilise their body parts and the space around them during the activity. 

During this stay home period, you may be worried that there are limited physical activities to engage your child for their gross motor development and use up their excess energy from being indoors. Why not come up with your own obstacle course at home by using the materials that you can find at home?

Similar to the suggestion that we had previously for the game of hopscotch, you could integrate learning concepts into your obstacle course too! We are intrigued by an example of home obstacle course that can be seen on a video by the courtesy of The Socially Distanced Dad (@thesociallydistanceddad on IG). We hope to spark some interest for you to create your own version of obstacle course for your children at home.

Have fun and ninja away!