Grammy on the Go
By Karen Shadrach
We are in the middle of a Northeast Ohio winter. Maybe your grandchildren have already had the horrible flu going around, but what about the dreaded cabin fever? It’s around this time of year that this fever reaches an all-time high, as the weather gets too cold for outside snow fun and even school recess times are cancelled and spent inside.
What’s one cure to help this fever? It’s time to get the kids active and have fun constructing an indoor obstacle course!
The obstacle course will provide endless hours of fun and challenge. Ten stations are plenty for most kids. Each station contains a different challenge, activity or movement that must be completed before they can move forward to the next station.
Setting up the obstacle course is half of the fun; just remember to keep safety first, but always allow the 
children to be involved in the ideas and set-up. Our grandkids love the planning stage and have come up with some great ideas. Pillows are always used, either to jump on or around. Chairs and tables can be set up and pushed together to make tunnels to crawl under, or to create a high walkway. We also have a set of stairs that they like to run up and down several times. Balance beams are made with painter’s tape laid in a straight line on the floor.
Additional ideas for the course include objects to run around, such as tables, sofas or an island in the kitchen; jump in and out of a hula-hoop; use a jump rope to jump 10 times before moving onto the next station; stop and dance; perform sit-ups or jumping jacks; push a laundry basket filled with books; throw balls into a basket or a small basketball hoop; stack boxes and kick them down (and restack) before moving along; run while balancing something on your head like a beanbag or pillow…
We have a set of plastic orange cones which are mainly used for outside boundary markers, but really come in handy for making an obstacle course track!
The children usually have no difficulty memorizing where they are to go throughout the course. But if you want, you could mark your trail with painters tape or other stickers to make it easier to follow. After running through a few times, you can time them to see who can complete the course the quickest. Altering the rules by hopping on one foot throughout the course, skipping or running backwards will make the challenge even greater.
If you have young 2-3 year-old grandchildren, you can set up a series of activities such as having them catch a large ball, jump in place, walk on a line (for balance), or stand on one foot. All of the above will help them to develop their gross motor skills and give them practice in following directions.
Get the brain involved. Between stations, set up pre-mixed alphabet file cards and have them place all cards in the correct A-Z order. Use a white board for them to write or trace upper and lower case letters and numbers. Older children could read a small book, or perform math problems at some of the stations.
A popular game these days, Floor is Lava, is played by imagining that the floor is molten hot lava. Make your own lava game by jumping from pillow to pillow without losing your balance and stepping or falling upon the floor. Turn your floor into a lava leaping adventure.
When children cannot expel their excess energy, they will release it in negative ways, such as becoming aggressive or very irritable. We grandparents can help them burn off the negative behaviors, which will be helpful to both the grandkids and their parents!
Photos by Karen Shadrach
