Inside Gross Motor

One of the great things about Wonderful Husband is that I can show him a picture or draw something and he can usually build it. I wanted a couple of things to help the kids with their gross motor skills. Things that are fun and the kids would never know they were exercising while using.

Homemade Balance Board

The first project was a balance board. It's rounded on the bottom and flat on the top. I've seen these called boats, rockers, and a few other things, but I've always called them balance boards. After this photo was taken we did add some anti-slip stickies (the kind you put on the bottom of the bathtub) to keep the kids from sliding off. We play catch while standing on this. The kids will sometimes pull this over to the easel and stand on it while they are coloring or painting. They use it for a step stool (usually for getting into things I don't want them to) and really do use this a lot. Wonderful Husband made it from scrap wood in very little time.

This one is much more complicated to use. There are two holes in the end and you put a foam ball on one or the other. There is a small rectangle on the middle bottom of the shape you can see. So it is actually on a small angle. When you step on the other end, the ball flies into the air. In theory you can then catch it. This is much more difficult than it sounds. Turns out this was way too difficult for the kids, but the adults had fun playing with it. The kids mostly just used it to send the balls flying across the room. I can see this being used more as they get older.