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Home › Articles › Activities › It's a Carnival!

It's a Carnival!

Outside Fun That Promotes
Motor Skills

By Rae Pica, Children's Movement Specialist

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Being outside is important for children. The outdoors is the best place for young children to practice and master emerging physical skills and to experience the pure joy of movement. And you can inspire the practice of motor skills and its accompanying joy with a backyard carnival!

Following are activities for motor skills falling under the headings of manipulative skills (those in which an object is handled), locomotor (traveling) skills and gymnastic skills.

Ball Rolling
Even the youngest child can roll and receive a large ball, which means performing this skill offers plenty of opportunity for success. Start by asking your child to roll balls of various sizes at an outside wall. Once he's comfortable with this, try "bowling" with a large ball and empty soda bottles!

Bowling for Boxes
Boxes and balls are childhood favorites, but combined into a fun game, they are irresistible!

You'll need:
Empty boxes of all sizes (not too big!)
Ball

Set the boxes up in a safe place outdoors. Show your child how to throw or roll the ball to knock down the boxes. She will have a ball watching them tumble to the ground and even more fun helping you set them back up again. For a change, use empty, plastic soda bottles!

Throwing
Kids love to throw, andbecause it's an activity that promotes hand-eye coordination and provides much-needed upper body exercise, you should let them practice throwing whenever possible. But don't expect accuracy just yet! Children progress from throwing in a downward direction to a two-hand underhand throw to a one-hand underhand throw to a one-hand overhand throw. And they throw for distance before throwing for accuracy.

Begin by providing foam or yarn balls and challenging your child to practice throwing them at the outside of the house (a target that's hard to miss!). He also canpractice throwing beanbags or balls into a large box or trash barrel, standing as close as he needs to.

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