Obstacle Course

Organization and planning start with the body. This activity helps you support planning and organization through play.

Let’s first look at what an obstacle course is:

Whether outdoors or indoors, an obstacle course involves creating a structure for a path to climb, balance, travel over and under and through and between. You may also be in nature and using what’s there – but with a plan of what happens first, then, and after that.

The most obvious benefit your child gets out of an obstacle course is a sense of where the body is and how it is used: motor planning.

And there’s more:

There’s the sequence… what they do for a start, and then… and then…

If your child participates in planning the obstacle course, then they’re developing their creativity and planning skills and organization – and yes, this practice supports other kinds of plans they may be making in the future. Check that it is safe, but let them be creative. As they grow, the course will get more intricate, perhaps more challenging.

Make it even more of a learning opportunity:

Commentate on their progress. In other words: as they go step by step, say, aloud, what it is that they are doing. “…under the table and now over the pillow… between the two chairs and behind the bed…” You are working on their literacy.

When your child is able to, have them say what they’ll be doing next.

You can add a component: an imaginary “remote control”, which you can take turns using: when one person is going through the obstacle course, the other calls out “stop”, “start”, “faster” or “slower”. This is especially useful for children who find it hard to slow down. Are they ready for “backwards”?