Whether we are indoors or outdoors, our toddlers love to impress us daily by testing their abilities when it comes to gross-motor movement. This month the children were invited to tackle a new challenge when we brought out our textured wooden balance beams and put their coordination skills to the test!
As we cleared our floor to make room for the beams, everyone came over to see what was happening. Several children including Aarav, Ella, Myles, and Ruben all jumped right in to help when they noticed Rebecca (educator) assembling the beams and connector pieces. This initial step of setting up the equipment offered lots of opportunity to exercise important cognitive processes like problem-solving and visual/spatial awareness along with teamwork.
The children spent time experimenting with different pieces of equipment to answer questions like, “how can we attach one beam to another using the connector blocks?”, or, “why do the beams keep sliding around on the floor when I walk across them?”.
Atharv and Ella approached the beams with confidence, showing great determination as they walked all the way across. Meanwhile Aarav, Miles, and Mateo were a bit more cautious while trying to step up onto the beam with two feet and see how long they could free-stand without falling. Owen found it most exciting to walk in and out of the circle of beams by carefully doing a big step over the raised obstacle.
Through this experience, everyone demonstrated their unique levels of balance and bravery around trying this tricky walking beam! This experience encouraged the toddlers to engage their whole bodies and step outside their comfort zone with new forms of movement.
I wonder how this group could further challenge themselves and develop more confidence around balance, strength, and coordination. What might they do if presented with a variety of simple obstacle course equipment?
