Pandatime

Whether you want to entertain kids on a slow day, provide them with something to play with when friends come round, or to go all out and set up a fancy one for a birthday party, an obstacle course is a great idea for children of any age.

STEP ONE: GATHER YOUR ITEMS

Use items around the house, such as laundry baskets

You can probably find most things from around the house and in the garage. Gather items like laundry baskets, shoe boxes, sturdy plastic stools, clean rubbish bins, balls, household buckets and long cardboard tubes. Your child may have hoops or a cloth tunnel amongst his toys. In the garage find items like ladders, ropes, empty cardboard boxes, pool noodles, planks of wood, tires, plastic clamshells (for sand and water play) .

Further afield at Kmart , you may find resources like tunnels, popup soccer goals, boxes of plastic balls, kangaroo balls, cones to weave around, bowling sets etc for some very reasonable prices (mostly under $15).

Bunnings is also a great place to buy a couple of planks of wood of different widths for balance beams. You may be able to pick up some empty cartons to use as tunnels if you don’t have any at home.

If you’re super-enthusiastic, you could make your own balance board out of a piece of ply with a length of dowel underneath or purchase a circular wobble disc from Rebel Sport, this would provide a challenge from which to balance and throw beanbags at targets.

A trip to Kimbriki Recycling Centre in Terrey Hills for recycled treasures may yield some unexpected surprises. You can pick up a large number of car tyres for free and you may be lucky at the Reuse shop to get a few planks of wood for your course for a few dollars. Some wonderful tyre and plank arrangements can be made with planks joining stack of tyres together in various configurations.

STEP TWO: SET UP YOUR OBSTACLE COURSE

Once you’ve gathered up all your items, you just need to decide how to join all them together in one continuous circle obstacle course.

Here are a few ideas:

• If you have a tree with a branch from which you can tether a rope, you will have a huge hit as children swing off a launching pad across the river (blue tarp), or over the crocodile and land safely on the other side.
• Laundry baskets can be tethered to provide a jumping challenge.
• Shiny hoops from the dollar shops can be tied together with masking tape to provide a crawl thru challenge.
• Clamshells can be laid upside-down as a hard surface for children to run across.
• Ladders can be laid flat on the ground or platform ladders can be assembled at a low height (many ladders will not be suitable). Ensure they are set up properly
• If you have a rope ladder, this can be laid on the ground.
• If you have cones, the children can weave in and out of them. If you don’t have cones, empty buckets placed upside-down will do just as well.
• Shoeboxes could have little u shaped cuts in them to hold cardboard tubes or pool noodles for children to hurdle over.
• Carpet squares can be used as stepping stones.
• It may be possible to travel a small section of the course by scooter/ride toy/ horse etc.
• If you’re having a themed birthday party, the obstacle course could be adapted to accommodate superheros or fairy princesses, dinosaurs etc, with a few imaginative additions. Older children could be timed competitively for their circuit and prizes awarding for the three fastest.

SAFETY IS PARAMOUNT!

• Test your obstacle course with your child for a few days before the party to make sure everything is secure and make any necessary alterations.
• Children should all travel in the same direction (clockwise?) and have a staggered start.

And finally… have fun with it!