Bear-crawling along the blue line
There is a long line of blue tape that runs across our living room. It looks like a very, very long “I.” It’s only been there for a few days, and I’m already forgetting that it’s a weird look in a house. Blue tape? Across the floor? What’s so weird about that? Doesn’t everybody have a pretend balance beam running across their rug and wooden floor?
Well, as long as it makes sense to my toddler, it’s all good. It’s there because when I started taking her to gymnastics class a few weeks ago, I realized she had some room to improve when it came to things like… walking straight haha. So I set down a blue line and did exercises with her every day, and the following week, she showed tremendous improvement in class! Bonus, it got her as good and tired as a good romp around a playground would have done… without stepping foot outside of the house! This is always a win when you’re holing yourself up at home for the afternoon so the baby can get a good nap in!
Here are some of the exercises we’ve been practicing. If you’ve got a toddler in the house, try ’em out! You can use an existing straight line that goes across the kitchen or put some blue tape down to make it feel official. It’s amazing how many activities you can build around a straight line!
Walk forwards. You’d be surprised how many instructions I can give on something so basic: “One foot in front of the other. Take smaller steps. Go slower. Try to put your arms out. Stay on the line. Keep your feet straight. Try to point your toes forward…” I try not to spew them all out in a row, but these are all things she can work on to build up her form and confidence for the balance beam!
Walk backwards. This is pretty hard for toddlers! Same instructions as above, with main emphasis on keeping her feet on the line.
Side step to your left. Face one wall and do sidesteps, saying, “Open, close, open, close” all the way across. Feet should not cross.
Side step to your right. Facing the same wall, sidestep again, repeating the “open, close, open, close” directions. Face the same wall so that you can practicing leading with both left and right feet.
Bear-crawl forwards. This is really tiring, even for adults! For this one, I tell her to put her hands and feet on either side of the line, not on the line. The first time she tried doing a bear-crawl at gymnastics, it was so hard and so challenging for her. Sometimes she was leaning down on her head like it was a fifth limb, other times she’d get all bunched up and have a hard time figuring out which limb to move next, especially when we were going backwards (see next exercise). It was slow going. But with practice she’s gotten really good at it!
Bear-crawl backwards. This of course does not mean that you turn around and go back, head first, as my toddler is always trying to do. It means your feet lead the way in this awkward and clumsy bear-walk heading back to the starting side. Going along a line will help your child stay on track and keep them from running into furniture! 🙂
These are fun basic warm up activities that you can repeat again and again. There are more fun balance beam activities we’ve done, and when I get a good collection, I’ll share them here!
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