Need Indoor Gross Motor Ideas

[Unregistered]

Any clever ideas on how to use up a 2 year-old DCB's energy, while stuck inside a smaller home would be so appreciated. It's already been a tough winter, and he's driving me crazy!!! (The feeling is mutual, I'm sure)--I feel like a lot of his recent misbehavior is because he needs some outlets for his physical energy, but unfortunately we're stuck inside because of the extreme temperatures. (I'd give anything for a basement with a bouncy castle right about now....or a two month vacation.)

[heyhun77]

Crib mattress on the floor or a mini trampoline. Snowball fight with cotton balls or rolled up socks, balance beam or just put a tape line on the floor. Dance to music. For a change of pace add puppets or stuffed animals to the dancing. Put stuff in a lidded container and let them shake it. Make ribbon bands with a pipe cleaner circle and some ribbon or use string in a pinch or even strips of fabric. Turn circles until dizzy then repeat. Act out animal actions like bears, turtles, dogs, crabs, ect.

Thats what i have off the top of my heaf. If you do a google or pintrist search for toddler gross motor activities you should be able to find more.

[Annalee]

Any clever ideas on how to use up a 2 year-old DCB's energy, while stuck inside a smaller home would be so appreciated. It's already been a tough winter, and he's driving me crazy!!! (The feeling is mutual, I'm sure)--I feel like a lot of his recent misbehavior is because he needs some outlets for his physical energy, but unfortunately we're stuck inside because of the extreme temperatures. (I'd give anything for a basement with a bouncy castle right about now....or a two month vacation.)

I have carpet squares I can set up for the kids to jump to and from, or set up a maze for skipping or just let the kids each have one and dance/exercise to music on. :}

[daycare]

I am a very hyper person

All of my staff laughs at how hyper I am, but it makes me perfect for the job.

I bought some action movement cards from the target dollar bins. so what does a bob cat do, snail, penguin, rabbit, frog etc. I do movement, sound, what letter does snail start with etc.

we play red light green light with jumping, clapping, hopping, etc. I have three circles, I hold up one of the colors and they do accordingly.

you can sing shake your sillies out 100 times, it never gets old.

dance party never gets old.

we do a morning boot camp to get it all out before I read. we do jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups. Of course in a very fun way. the kids love love love it. They all poop out before I do and when nap time comes, they are all out in a minute.

[_Dana_]

Here are some of the indoor gross motor things we do:

Dance, dance, DANCE! Sing, sing, SING! It's a daily activity here to be silly and creative.

I use masking tape a lot on the floor. I make balance lines, car tracks, letters, shapes, etc. We play lots of games to help with letter/shape recognition. For example, bear crawl to the square. Now, bunny hop to the circle! The car tracks aren't really gross motor, but I change up the track every now and then. The kids really love it and will spend forever playing on it.

Animal walks! Animal walks are great exercise and I do them at least once a month for my own personal training. You can have them do bear crawls, camel walks, bunny hops, frog jumps, duck walks, and crab walk. Depending on their balance, they can also do the three-legged dog.

Yoga is also great! There are a number of poses that the children can do. Plank, flower, tree, down dog, cat, cow, table, frog, etc.

Hope you can find some of it helpful!

[Lil'DinoEggs]

I recommend the book The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun. It was written for children with ASD or SPD, but I use so many ideas for my kids. It stimulates all their senses so they get worn out.