Physical development programme ideas please for older baby and toddler

[Kerileanne99]

Okay!
So, here are some pictures of the new garage wall...hubby starts teaching Fall semester on Monday so I finally gave up and took some with my phone! Not great, but, you can get the idea...
And I am SOOO Excited! The city has approved our plans to build a new "garage" for the van, which means serious room for expansion on our climbing wall/playground! I will keep you updated!

[Kerileanne99]

And a couple more photos...

[Korrale4kq]

This is incredible Keri and so inspirational. I have no garage, but I wonder if I can convince hubby to help me build something like this in our basement.

[Mandabplus3]

Oh I want to come over and play!
Alex looks so grown up! She is so tall now. Oh but I have to ask,  why the giant yellow duck? It's the kind of thing you find in a teachers garage! 
My kids would love this playground. All I would need to add would be a fixed bar for their Gym training and I doubt they would ever leave...or get to school on time again!

[Kerileanne99]

Mandab!
You made me laugh
I hadn't realized her enormous yellow duck was in the picture! Yep, an enormous, 4 foot by 4 foot free standing yellow duck...
The theme for Alexs 2nd birthday was all things yellow duck, she was mental for them. We had ducks everywhere.  I even took a cake decorating class and baked a 3d massive duck cake... Not that we were able to eat it as she woulnt have allowed it to be cut, even if she would have eaten cake in the first place
Anyway, not to be outdone, Daddy made that massive duck for her as a decoration/bday surprise! Now there is no getting rid of the thing, so we cut holes in it to turn it into a bean bag toss! Now, some of her favorite 'math play' is done with it as I found a fun set of beanbags numbered 1-20...the math games the kid invents with them never fails to amaze me...
Still, hoping she will be willing to part with it sometime before her Uni days! Although, there has been recent discussion about redoing it as a hen! Yikes...

Don't tell the kids, but Daddy has already started on a fixed gymnasts bar and a free-standing set of 'monkey' bars that can be height adjusted 

[Mandabplus3]

Lol how lucky is that little princess! How will you top that for her 18th?  The duck sounds fun!
I have started the beam, ( Natalya's birthday present) I am making it a really close match to the one she uses in class it's padded with wadding and covered with vinyl, but will only be a foot ( or so) off the floor. I might add height later when we have a safer location for it.
 The fixed bar I have sorted now too! I finally figured out how to do it,so that they can all use it. It has to be strong but height adjustable BY THEM! I have a plan....just need my hubby on board with the welder  We actually pass a great braciation ladder on the way home from school, at child's height in a park. But finding a fixed bar is much harder near my house! Go figure!

[lzp11]

Wow - amazing.  And your plans for development sound great.  We would love to come and play too   

In the meantime, i'm trying to be creative.  We are visiting lots of outdoor areas whilst the weather is good (this may not be for very long in the UK  ).  This weekend we visited a park with a huge number of logs and roughly made wooden furniture to play on - great for climbing, balance and role play games.  It also has a long road to ride the scooter or balance bike (and lots of other children on bikes to provide motivation and confidence to get onto her real bike soon).  We did a lot of shuttle runs between the trees and I was quite surprised how fast my 3-year old could run.  The baby crawled around happily in the grass and stood up on lots of benches.

Our problem is there is a fine line between fun and over-tiredness, which leads to exhaustion and meltdowns later in the day.  She tends to burn very brightly and then burn out if we are not careful.

[Kerileanne99]

Sounds like fun Izp11!
How about a simple knotted climbing rope?
We have one in the above picture, the one with a green round swing seat...the rope is knotted every foot to give hands and feet purchase...in fact, when she was smaller we used tennis balls over the knots for smaller hands and feet.  You cut larger holes on the bottom of the ball, smaller on top, then 'string' them, one at a time from the bottom up, then tying the next knot.  This can be put up just about anywhere, inside or out, and taken down easily.
The swing seat at the bottom isn't a necessity, although we have discovered it works really well for balance. Although we purchased ours, it would be quite simple to make one!

Another couple of things for rainy days:
Drawing hopscotch with chalk, dancing with colored scarves, and a hula hoop is actually quite a challenging thing at three!

[lzp11]

Oh oh oh!!!   

Keri - your post has just given me a great idea!

My mum has a frame for a swing in the back garden (it was my swing when I was a child!).  The old swing seat was rotten so we discarded it.  At the top of the frame there are two metal chains hanging down and I use two screwgate karabiners to attach a roped swing seat to it. 

I have realised that I could hang a knotted rope and all sorts of other items to this frame!  Any ideas what I could do?  A trapeeze perhaps?!?!   

[Kerileanne99]

Izp11-
Perfect! There are SO many things you can put up on a swing set frame.  In fact, much of what we have up in the climbing wall area spends time in the garden on our swing set frame...
Much of what we use came from this place:
swingsetmall

Much of the things there could quite easily be homemade as well, but the site gave me lots of ideas.  Although we have this trapeze bar
we have also a homemade version. We used a piece of PVC pipe, with a wooden dowel just of a very slightly smaller diameter inserted inside for stability and to prevent spinning one the holes were drilled.

These trapeze rings are a lot of fun, we have them across the wall
and I have seen small climbing frames built on the ends of swing set frames.  Our cargo net also makes it out there on occasion as well, and a variety of different types of swings, many homemade...
And of course the knotted climbing rope!
It is also fun to sit and balance on a ball, holding on to a suspended bar or rope! It actually takes practice and lots of balance work. Here is where I took the idea from: ( we don't actually attach the ball, it takes more skill not to!)

[ShenLi]

Hi Keri,

Oh my, oh my, oh my! Your home gym is awesome! My son would be green with envy (my younger one that is...) Wish we could do something like that at our place, too, but we don't have the space for it :-( And I doubt hubby would let me use the guest bedroom... :-((

Can't wait to see more pictures of your expanded playground!

[lzp11]

I have discovered a fantastic way of encouraging my DD to jump and it's great for building fitness and stamina too - a space hopper!  We were given one by friends this weekend and it has been a HUGE hit.  Great for jumping inside and out and also good for co-ordination and balance.

Ours is Peppa Pig (I think probably a UK thing?) but I'm sure there are lots of fun options.  And great value for money too!  This is the one we were given:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mookie-Peppa-Pig-Sit-Bounce/dp/B0023T4DZE/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1346092328&sr=8-3

[nee1]

Once he can walk along furniture, independently, never sit him down always put him down standing near something to hold onto. Re arrange the furniture a bit so he can walk longer distances. Coffee table to couch, to chair to table leg..... This is what got my son really walking he had been creeping for ages, we spent a week on holidays in an apartment with low furniture. He had plenty of chances to walk small distances with support and was walking independently by the end of day 4, by the end of the week he was walking everywhere.

Hi Mandab,

Thank you for that recommendation to bring lots of low furniture into the room to encourage the child to walk. The technique works!!! I am so pleased.

My child had been cruising along furniture for a very long time and had really become very, very fast at crawling. He made no attempts to take steps and I kept thinking "How do I get this child to walk?" I started helping him walk by holding his hands - that helped though not very much. And  I remembered Doman's suggestion in 'How to teach your baby to be physically superb' about not walking the child, as by doing so, the child is using the adult's balance and sense of gravity, and not his/her own.

So I decided to re-read Doman's books - "How smart is  your baby" and "How to teach your baby to be physically superb", especially the parts that talk about encouraging walking. And in "How to teach your baby to be physically superb", I found his technique for encouraging walking: simply placing lots of stable furniture within the room where the child is, and placing the furniture close together, so that the child is encouraged to take a step from one furniture to the other. The very same thing Mandab had suggested on the Brillkids Forum. And though I started wondering about the inconvenience of getting so much furniture into the room, and the inconvenience it would cause for everyone,  I reasoned that once the child became proficient, the  furniture would be taken away. So I decided to do it.

And I remember Doman saying in that book that once the child takes a step, each day the parent could further increase the spacing between the furniture, and so forth, until everything is taken away. So I decided to do it.

In just 2 days of my doing that, he took  walking steps, moving from one piece of furniture to the other. This afternoon, I  spaced the furniture placing them more far apart, and he moved from one to the other, despite the far distance. I was so, so pleased!!! That was just the missing link, the missing technique, to get him to walk. I am so, so, so, so pleased. Doman recommends at least 2 hours of practice and I’ll do that. We'll continue tomorrow, and with the progress I'm seeing, the furniture may very soon leave the room. 

So lzp11, that could be the technique you need to get your little one walking. And if you can get ‘How to teach your baby to be physically superb’,  please do. That is one of his best books and it contains lots of photos of how to carry out the activities. I highly recommend it. Completely worth the price.  I got mine used on amazon.co.uk.  You can also try ebay.co.uk or abebooks.co.uk, for the cheapest deal on the book. The book contains lots of strategies for getting certain physical activities done.

Mandab and dear members,  are there any other secret tips I could use to accelerate the progress I am seeing? I’m using the Doman book too but would greatly appreciate any first-hand advice you have to offer. Thank you so, so, so, so much. It was the  suggestions I got on this thread  that got me started in the first place. Thank you everyone.

[Korrale4kq]

Once my son culd hold himself upright I always put him down standing up. I didn't sit him or lay him on the floor. I also made him a wall of plastic totes/bins. He was able to cruise throughout the whole house.

Also getting little ride on toys before they can walk is a good idea also. Most parents I know use them after they walk. But a child who can sit can learn to scoot. A balance bike would be my option. They will use it for the next couple of years.

[Mandabplus3]

Glad I could help    not sure what other useful gems I have for you now....
Overall once my kids could walk I ditched the pram almost completely. Yes it took ages to get the milk and bread with a tottering toddler in tow, but that stage is so short and the more they practice the quicker they run! In truth I found the pram to be very restrictive for my kids, it was a great pram ( 4WD almost  ) but they hated the whole idea of sitting and often climbed throughout heir seatbelt to stand up and say hello over the top! So use it as little as possible now.
Did I mention I put them outside butt naked? It is quite uncomfortable to be buttnaked on the prickly grass...good motivation to walk. ( unless you have nice soft green lawn...we never do! )
As soon as they are capable regular walks on uneven ground is a must, it helps develop both balance and ability.
Right now, I think you have it covered with moving the furniture back, but also lookout for parks and playgrounds that have appropriate structures spaced a little apart for exploring. In a new exciting environment kids clock up a lot of Metres fast!
I shall think over what else I used to do for you.

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