All too often, children get out of school, go home, and do nothing but play video games or watch TV until it’s time to go to bed. With the beginning of the school year coming up soon, it might be a good idea to help your child establish some new routines and get them active again using their balance board as a part of their daily activities. This also comes to life for those who are years before school age. Your child has learned how to walk and might even be able to run by now. That’s great! But just like older kids and adults, toddlers can benefit from the physical and cognitive advantages that come with learning to balance and coordinate their movements on a balance board. Not only will this enhance their physical skills while strengthening the body muscles, but it will also help your child develop their imagination and cognitive abilities as well as strengthen their self-confidence and problem-solving skills.
With so many different toddler toys available, it can be hard to come up with new ideas for games or activities you can play with your child on those rainy days or afternoons that you just don’t know what to do. The wooden balance board is an excellent toy for toddlers and young children of all ages, but especially those between 18 months and 5 years old. The most important aspect of these toys, however, isn’t the wood they’re made from but the fact that they give your child a credit in balance and movement in different directions without being scary at all.
The balance board – or just rocker, if you like – is perhaps the most versatile and functional toddler toy in existence. It’s also a great way to have fun and encourage physical activity with your child, whether you have an infant who can barely sit up or an active toddler who’s full of boundless energy and enthusiasm! Most balance boards are made of a single piece of wood and don’t offer much else besides their balancing function. However, parents and toddlers can use them to play all kinds of fun games together!
Learn how to make your toddler’s balance board one of the most versatile toys you own with these 9 activities, games, and challenges – from the tried-and-true classics to more creative activities you may not have thought of before – that utilize all the different ways balance boards can be used in playtime and brought to perfection with daily practice.
The Benefits of Using a Balance Board
A balance board isn’t just some random toy that was popular back in the 90s — it’s an incredibly effective way to exercise and improve your balance, coordination, and posture that you can use no matter what age you are or how often you work out.
While being were originally developed to aid in physical therapy, today balance boards are often used as a fun way to work out and improve fitness, posture, and balance in everyday life. Rocking boards are also great tools for teaching kids how to get started with sports, as they give them an easy way to try out and practice new activities without fear of injury or embarrassment.
We think of a wobble board as a good toy that definitely should be in your children’s collection – it’s very durable and can be used over and over again. It’s also portable, cheap, and easy to move around the house by kids alone.
9 ideas for games with kids
Here are nine fun activities you can do with your kids on the balance board! These activities help to improve strength and balance while also offering an opportunity to spend quality time with your kids, fostering healthier relationships between you and your family members. You can accomplish each or most of these ideas indoors or outdoors, and many of them require only one thing which is the balance board itself. Have fun and don’t forget to give some credit for these ideas by checking our balance board selection!
Open full board potential with toddler yoga and stretching activities
Kid's yoga is a thing! It is important to find the right time and start teaching our children that physical health is not about committing to sport — a sense of balance, deep breathing, and general healthiness!
The balance board for kid's yoga probably belongs to one of the most underrated types of yoga equipment you’ve ever heard till now. This is important, because, for starters, your little ones are not really sold on the idea of doing some yoga and even stretching, but the balance board adds up to a fun game challenge.
Teach your child some simple poses, it would be better if you imbed them as a game element of yoga activity which they will totally love at such a young age! Stretching sounds even less appealing than yoga itself, but a curved shape of a wobble board makes it an interesting challenge.
Dive deep into awareness of core muscles functionality through toddler Tai Chi
This is just the right workout activity to get your child moving, breathing, and having fun. And it's a great way to introduce them to the concept of being mindful. Your little one will learn to control their own energy while they grow as well as their motor skills and knowledge of balance. This is a great activity that encourages kids to calm down and focus on their inner energy and this is the perfect way for your little ones to develop their core and balance skills.
There’s no doubt that most children love to climb. However, by focusing on a slow, deliberate process of transferring their body weight from one foot to the other foot? It’s total zen! The idea behind toddler tai chi is a slow and deliberate tilting on a balance board from one side to the next and back while the body stays as still as possible.
Use it as a nice cozy place for reading or even taking a nap
The wobble board is huge enough to be utilized as a cozy cradling that rocks back and forth almost with no effort from anyone’s side. For example, for infants, you most presumably will be getting down to sway them, nevertheless, but some children will basically lullaby themselves to sleep!
Alter your balance board’s function and make it into a place to relax! Lying down inside the ergonomic curves of the balance board does not necessarily guarantee naptime. But it's also a nice, restful stance for cuddling up with a book for a great time while reading! Generally, add as many soft blankets and cushions as you can for extra relaxing coziness!
It’s time for breakfast in bed
Here’s a scrumptious smallish idea on how to easily get your youngster up in the mornings. If you are tired of the same old breakfast, here is a great conception that can easily be accomplished in your bedroom. It could be one of the best ways to get up gradually and make yourself feel refreshed in the very morning.
Who doesn’t dream about waking up to a cheerful bright morning and having breakfast in bed? Go ahead, flip the board upside-down to have that U-shape, and utilize it to give your child the very experience that no Instagram photo can express. Use a balance board as a food tray – in a bedroom, on the couch, everywhere on the floor – wherever you or your child want some special serving for healthy meals. Just remember, that the fare is likely to drop down because the surface is quite round, so you will most likely want to stay away from sloppy foods, however, a good snack could be an excellent choice.
Use as an activity and play desk
This wobble board is perfect for children who love to play and make messes. Turn it upside-down and use it as a desk for fun enhancing activities like doing creative homework, sketching doodles, sculpting plasticine, or even building castles on top with some blocks. If you have some free time to help your little one, why not challenge them to create a unique masterpiece drawing with safe and wood-friendly paint on this balance board?
But we wouldn’t recommend using this as an educational desk for kids, because a proper chair and table are very important for children’s development, but it makes sense for previously mentioned examples.
Slides, bridges and rocking board
We already knew that rocking, balancing, or even wobbling are surely not the only ways your junior can enhance the development of fine and gross motor skills. When your lovely kiddo starts flipping the wobble board upside-down around the house, you need to pay close attention before you can be sure that they’ve become familiar with it and won’t do anything out of hand.
Because the balance board itself is a well-made sturdy object, it could be a decent improvised structure that can be used for sliding from a couch or for building an arch on top of two stools to use as an entrance to a children's hut, or making a bridge between foam furniture to make sure that “lava” won’t get them.
Who wants to test a new toy car ramp?
Ready to have some fun? Introduce your child to the concept of gravity and experiment with entertaining principles of gravitation as they push and pull a toy car down a balance board. Youngsters can use it with whichever side they want: like a ramp or a downhill. Watch out for zooming cars flying off everywhere too fast! This works flawlessly with fingerboards and other wheeled toys too!
Your little one is probably too young to take any academic hours in physics, but playing around with toys on a balance board helps in developing fine motor skills as well as motility of hands and the growth of spatial thinking. Youths learn to understand how different objects can interact with the world, but, by doing this the fun way with a balance board or any similar alternatives, they will definitely have a lot of unforgettable moments.
A lift into adult word or helping mom and dad with housework
I'm sure you already know that toddlers like helping out around the house – at least until it becomes a duty that could sometimes feel like a burden. Though, before it becomes a chore, our children happily want to do precisely what we are doing. Help your little one boost their confidence, problem-solving skills, and let them determine their own actions after turning the balance board upside-down.
For many kids, it’s incredibly hard to reach the top shelves of their kitchen cabinets. That’s why using a balance board as a step stool to overcome bodily limitations is part of a healthy child's development. It’s a base tool that will help kids navigate more as they grow up into adulthood.
A balance board helps parents to put their hands down, giving kids a new way to understand self-containment with their own bodies. It helps children understand that they are not just an object but also can be in control of something else by standing on it and using both hands to hold things like toys or a book. With regular balance board use, there is an increased awareness of stability, more focus and concentration, better motor skills, and less risk of falls.
After a busy day flip it, sit, and take some rest
We have already discussed standing, balancing, doing yoga, sleeping, eating, playing, and even navigating rooms, but what about just sitting? Simply flip your balance board upside-down which could act as a great platform like any stool or bench and give your child a seat.
It is a solid construction that will easily hold up to two or three small children sitting together side by side. And because the balance board itself is rather portable, you may carry it whenever you want either take it to the park or bring it to the beach, so you have a reliable sand-free surface.
A regular couch or a chair isn’t good enough for your kid anymore? Show them how fun it could be watching cartoons occasionally sliding to the side.
Balance board…
…is a genuinely flexible, functional and unique piece of equipment that will help in countless practical situations, many of which we’ve talked about here, but the real adventure comes when your kid starts exploring this toy on their own.
