Obstacle Course

Tonight before bath time, we had a little "occupational therapy" of our own.

First we created an obstacle course in the living room.

Puzzle pieces were laid out on the coffee table beside the couch. Each kid chose a puzzle piece, bounced off the couch, and into the "mud" (pillow crash pad on the floor). They had to crawl through the "mud", climb up the "bridge" (ottoman), jump off the bridge, run to the "mountain" (the chaise lounge), climb the "mountain", and go over the top of the "mountain", feet first, landing on the ground, where the puzzle was hiding. They had to place their puzzle piece into the puzzle and make their way back to get another piece.

The second obstacle course was in our family room. Inside the bounce house, we placed a jar of vehicles (planes, trains, cars, buses, etc). Each kid chose one vehicle and held it in their hand. They jumped across the bounce house, landing into the ball pit, making sure they held onto the (rubber) vehicle. Hidden in the ball pit was a mini-basketball. They had to find it, keeping hold to the vehicle. Then, the basketball needed to be thrown into a basket outside of the ball pit. They climbed out, and walked across the foot path (2 small kid size ottmans) and jump off onto the ground, where on the other side was a tub of water. They dropped their vehicles into the water and then started over.

Then, it was bath time. The kids finger painted with "soap paint" during bath time. After bath and brushing teeth, we had circle time with our new puppet friends. I found some great puppets (folkmannis puppets) at HodgePodge Games. I got a cute little lamb that Katie fell in love with for "Mary Had a Little Lamb". I got an Itsy Bitsy Spider finger puppet, a large Duck for "3 Little Ducks", and an awesome turtle for "Tim the turtle". The kids love the puppets and love learning through song.

Breaking the Rules

For the "active" child who needs physical activity before he/she can settle down to work, consider breaking the rules a bit!

With supervision, encourage pillow fights, jumping on the bed, and making crash pads! In our living room, we take all the pillows off the couch and make a semi-circle from the edge of the couch. Each kid (and adults) collect the pillows from the bedrooms and bring them to the living room to fill the crash pad. First, we lay down the decorative pillows to make a base. Then, pile on top all of the soft pillows from everybody's bed. Katie, John, (and Daddy) enjoy bouncing on the springs of the couch and landing in the crash pad. Sometimes they jump off the ottoman like the Olympic divers and other times, the couch works good. Katie does running starts from the other side and does somersault flips into the pillows. It works as a great release for all of the extra energy that needs to escape!

Our family room has also turned into a gym itself! We have a mini-bounce house and large ball pit. The kids enjoy bouncing and rolling around in the bounce house, as well as flipping, diving, jumping, and rolling into the ball pit. John hides toys at the bottom of the balls and goes looking for them. Different textured balls are also good to hide so he has to feel for it.

Everything can be put away if we are having company, but for the most part, our house is for the kids. Bill gets into the ball pit with them. Most ball pits you can buy are a bit too small, so we just bought a blow-up swimming pool and a bunch (750) plastic balls from Toys 'R Us. It's actually considered great therapy for the sensory child to play in the ball pit.

Even if a child does not have sensory integration issues, what child wouldn't love to jump on the bed, dive off the couch into a mound of pillows, have a bounce house in the family room, and flip into a ball pit? It's fun letting them be kids.