To make the little ones spend energy or to motivate the older ones to leave their screens, the motor skills course is always a good idea! Our advice for designing fun circuits in complete safety.
As you know, there is no shortage of reasons for wanting to create a motor skills course: this will help young and old alike psychomotor development, and this will also allow them to let off steam while having fun. Because nothing beats sports challenges, more or less difficult obviously depending on the age of the children, to advance their physical capacities and teach them to surpass themselves, to get out of their comfort zone, all with confidence.
And rest assured, even without the professional equipment of reception structures and schools, you can quite build a motor skills course that will appeal to your children, with a little imagination and our good advice.
Before installing the motor skills course
First step, and not least, make sure of course that your child's safety can always be guaranteed on the course. Declutter as much as possible the room in which you will install the circuit, protect overhanging corners of furniture and absorb unfortunate falls with the carpets you have available. The best will be to leave your child move barefoot so that he understands the course better, but if he is in slippers, make sure they are not slippery.
Explain clearly to your little one what he should do on the different elements of the course, showing him by example, and accompany him closely for his first attempts. To give him confidence, we will multiply the encouraging words and we'll stay tuned to find out if he's really having fun or not. We all have days with and days without!
A motor skills course at home
By developing a motor skills course at home, you will focus on different skills of your child so that he develops them more and more. It's up to you to vary the pleasures and mix these different ideas to compose the circuit most suited to what he already knows or not do.
The most imaginative parents can also invent a story linked to the course, with obstacles to avoid (like crocodiles under a bridge for example) and a goal to reach (a treasure or an animal to be released for example).
It will involve offering your child to jump in all possible ways: with their feet together or on one foot, forwards or backwards, crossing a small obstacle, landing further and further, from a small height. For this, use hoops if you have some, rope or large scotch tape to form circles, a small broom placed on two buckets to create a barrier not too high.
You can also place a high wire on which ribbons will be hung with clothespins, so that he tries to catch them, still jumping.
Taking into account your child's age, you will ask him to throw a foam ball or ping pong for example, farther and farther and more precisely, on a target, which could again be a hoop or a more or less large basin. To do this, he can use his two hands or one, make the throw from below or from above.
There are several ways to make balance work while having fun: transform a side piece of furniture, such as a small bench or a shoe cabinet, into a beam, on which your child will have to stay in balance, or advance it on a rope placed on the ground, on a line formed with large scotch tape, or even on a path of cushions more or less thick. Add a little difficulty for older children by putting a small book on their heads which should of course not fall.
If you have a big ball, like a Pilates ball for example, adapted to its size, it can find balance by settling on it astride, with both legs on the same side or by placing the ball under the belly while rolling it.
Practice the rolls on your little one, on a floor mat or the living room carpet if you don't have one, accompanying him in his first movements to help him tilt forward. The older ones can also try their hand at backward rolls.
Train your toddler to crawl forward and backward, using a tunnel if you have one, or a table or low table under which it will have to pass.
Some ideas found on Pinterest to inspire you
A motor skills course in the garden
You can of course move these courses outside if you have the chance to enjoy a garden, and even decorate them with games that you may have as a toboggan, to slide into different positions or with a ball for example, to throw it in a basket on arrival. The trampoline will also allow you to perfect your jumps, on a foot or by imitating the frog, and to try your hand at rolling. Around the age of 5, you can suggest a stage jumping rope which will teach your child to coordinate his movements.
This outdoor space also offers you the opportunity to practice racing in all its variations, especially for older children: by lifting the knees, with obstacles or with a long jump at the end for example. It may also be easier than indoors to make him develop his ability to hang and even move forward while hanging, for example on a tree branch.
And if in addition, you benefit from a swimming pool, take advantage of it with an aquatic motor skills course, adapted of course to your child's abilities and his ease in the water. Set up a circuit with objects that he will have to fetch on the surface or in depth if he can swim, with a fries or board below or above which he must pass, a small ball which he must throw at a target, etc.
So let your imagination run wild … and have a good trip!
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