The Obstacle Course

Deciding where to place materials

What can you do with a pile of logs, scrap lumber, and stumps in an empty parking lot? Well, if you're a child with a great imagination and the freedom to choose how to use the available materials, the options are endless. This group of children decided to make an obstacle course.

Working together

To begin, they worked together to haul the logs and stumps into the parking lot. Then they tried different layouts and arrangements of materials.They used the board as a ramp, propped up on the edge of a narrow log and placed a couple of bigger logs next to the ramp so they would have something to jump over. They had a starting line and a finish line as well.

"We need to add mud."

As they began to take turns testing the obstacle course, the children decided they needed a "post" at the starting line. They wanted to stand a log up on end, but it wouldn’t stay. Someone noticed small puddles and mud nearby and organized a team to gather mud to use as glue. They eventually stood the log up, packed "glue" around the base, and balanced it. Then they pushed another log up next to it to hold it in place while the mud dried.

"Look how far I can jump!"

During the process of creating an obstacle course, the children worked through many challenges. First, many of the logs were heavy so they had to work together to carry them or roll them in order to move them. Then they had to decide where to put things and explain their ideas to each other when there were disagreements. They also had to test the course and make adjustments so that it was safe and stable to use.

"We built this!"

This was done at a nature preschool but what city sidewalk or backyard wouldn't provide a perfect setting for a similar activity? What if we, as teachers and parents, let children choose how to use materials rather than tell them how materials are to be used? What if we resist the urge to "correct" a child's usage of a particular toy, or provide them with alternative toys such as rocks, logs, pinecones, or cardboard and just watch? I wonder what would happen...

Physical Challenges For Children in Nature

I wrote this post as a parent education piece a couple of years ago while I was teaching at a nature preschool. As today's weather in Minnesota oscillates between winter and spring, I think about the children navigating the ice, snow, and water out on the sidewalks. While the setting at the preschool I write about below isn't urban, certainly the physical challenges presented could be replicated in most any setting. Consider how your backyard, a neighborhood park, or an exploratory walk around the block could be used in gross motor development for your child, and how letting them take small risks can be good not only for their physical development, but for their confidence too.

Physical Challenges in Nature

Winter 2015

The natural terrain at our school provides children with physical challenges every day. Weather and the seasons continually change the environment. In this scenario, children do something that children everywhere do – they use their strength and balance to try to walk a straight line. Using the sandbox retaining timbers as a “tightrope,” children experiment with strategies for staying on the timbers and making it from one end of the sandbox to the other. They have walked these timbers many times, but today they are wearing boots and snow gear and the timbers are slippery and covered with snow.

One child (M) asks for help moving from logs to the timbers. She is given help at first. Others want to play this game. Soon we have many children testing their balance, trying out strategies such as putting their arms out, walking with slow, small steps, and asking each other for help. After walking with help, watching her peers, and the assurance that teachers are here to help if she needs it, M walks along the timbers by herself. “I did it!” 

We move our balance activity to another space just outside of the playground where the slack line is set up between trees. Here, children are about two feet off the ground and use a log as a step up to the

slack line.

Teacher: How is the slack line different from the timbers around the sandbox?

M: It’s the same because it’s really hard to do!

S: This one is more wobbly than the one at camp (another slack line). I can’t put my arms out like on the boards but I can hold onto the rope!

M: This is fun. I think I can do it myself!

Teachers always make sure children are safe, but encourage them to take small risks so that they can enjoy successes such as these.