Parents, have you ever wondered how to encourage children to develop their movement skills?
Well, Storycises Wendy and Jane are back with another blog on ideas to help you!
The farm park is a great environment to do just that! There’s so much to do at our local farm park, Farmer Palmer’s, to ensure that your child is getting lots of practice in their essential foundation movement skills.
Bouncy Castle
Everyone loves a Bouncy Castle! And, at Farmer Palmer’s there are two to choose from! How many times does your child get out of breath during the day? Exercising to breathlessness improves heart and muscle fitness, and also helps to build stamina.
It’s not only adults that need to keep fit. Children need to as well, so a long bounce-around on a bouncy castle is a must!
Meeting the Animals
Meeting, holding, and feeding animals at the farm is a great activity for your child to practice using both hands for a task if they are able – where one hand is doing something different than the other hand. They also need to grade the force of their movements, as too hard a squeeze isn’t good for animals! Getting the ‘just right’ amount of hold is a skill that needs practice.
From a sensory perspective, experiencing the different textures and temperatures of the animals helps children to accept different touch sensations.
Pedal Tractors
Sitting on pedal tractors will require children to use their postural/core stability, which is essential for providing coordinated, accurate and strong leg and arm movements.
When pedalling and steering, legs and arms are all doing different movements, this is a great coordination challenge. It also challenges spatial awareness as your child must negotiate a busy environment and other children.
Sedentary lifestyles are difficult to avoid as adults sometimes, but for our children it is detrimental in many ways. Encourage more activity by modelling how great it is to be active and mobile. Get out of breath, run with your children, but scaffold them to experiment and explore their own abilities without always doing it for them.
There’s so much to do at Farmer Palmer’s which gives our children vital practice at foundation motor skills. We hope you have fun!
Wendy and Jane, The Storycises Physios