Hoop and Balls

Through my business, I often help parent and child care centres create activities that will promote healthy development and achievement of next milestones. There are so many things you can do with your child and they are very cost-effective. Generally, you will have the materials sitting around in your home somewhere or you can be creative and think of your own substitutes.

This hoop and balls activity is a great one which will stimulate several areas of development; both fine and gross motor, manipulative, sensory and cognitive. Depending on what your child decides to to with the materials, will determine which area gets exercised the most. The only materials you need are- as you may have guessed: a small hoop and one or two balls ( size of a tennis ball). I have decided to use textured balls; such as massage balls to allow for sensory development, but any ball will do.

Place the hoop on the ground and put one or two balls inside. I like to have materials set up before Lachlan wakes in the morning or afternoon; this way when he walks into the room he is greeted with new objects, uninfluenced of how I sat them down or moved them. See what your little one does. He may be intrigued by the ball and decide to explore that first. Perhaps he like the hoop. He'll be working on different grasps as he picks up both of these objects. At some point he will realise that if he moves or drags the hoop, the ball will move with it. The direction and way he moves the hoop will determine the direction the ball rolls and how fast or slow it will go. This process shows cause and effect while exercising his manipulative and gross motor skills. Lachlan also discovered that he could put him self inside the hoop, either by crawling into the hoop or by lifting it an placing it around him. For obvious reasons, you should always supervise your children when they are playing with the hoop. They may get aggravated if they can't remove the loop from around them and could pull it towards their neck during this frustration. As with all activities, keep a close watch and offer guidance when needed.

Try adding these other ideas for additional play:

• Add cars with the hoop (the hoop makes a nice 'speed bump' obstacle
• Older children can play a ring toss came with the hoops and buckets
• Toddlers can practice hooping other larger objects such as a bucket, doll, basket etc and practice pulling them towards them.
• School-age children can practice rotating the hoop around their foot and jumping over it with the opposite foot. They can also use it as a hula hoop for their waist, neck and arms.
• Have more ideas? Please leave a comment and share with others!