Are you looking for sports based activities for your children to try out? Sports are fantastic for helping children to develop their gross motor skills (find out more about gross motor skills here). Gross motor skills aren’t just helpful for running, jumping and climbing they are also important for developing the postural, core muscles that are needed so that children can sit comfortably at school and home and hold a pencil and write.

These activities are just suggestions and I’m aware that every activity won’t be suitable for every child, but I’ve tried to include a real mix of activities so that there will be some to suit all children. Also, as parents you’re the experts so please feel completely free to adapt the activities to suit your children.

Here’s some further info and instructions for two of the activities above:

Spaghetti Javelins– This is a really fun (and much safer and accessible) version of javelins! All you need is some uncooked spaghetti and outdoor space. Children have to try and see how far they can throw their javelins. They could watch a clip of people throwing javelins on TV first to find out how and then either compete against one another, or even against themselves.

Balloon Football– As balloons are bigger and slower it can make them much easier to play football with, in my experience it also creates a few giggles along the way too!.

Other Activities

• If it’s raining- have a read of our post about our favourite indoor activities for active kids!

Resources

If you’re looking for toys and resources for outdoor play here’s our favourites

You’ll also find lots and lots of sports/active based activities (as well as lots of other activities) in my book ‘100 Ways Your Child Can Learn Through Play‘ published by Jessica Kinglsey Publishers (Hachette) which can help with the development of hand eye coordination and gross motor skills. Each activity tells you which skills it helps your child to develop, everything from speech and language to hand-eye coordination and concentration- have a look! You can find it on all major book shops, here’s the amazon link (tip: if you’re not sure if its for you, click on the kindle option and you can ‘look inside’ the first few pages of my book before you decide to buy!)

Enjoyed these activities ? you’re welcome to buy me a virtual coffee on m Ko-fi Site here.