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It's a Balancing Act

Hi everyone! We hope you are keeping well and staying safe. We are on week 9(?) of isolation up in Canada and we are strangely getting used to the “new routine”. The kids are out of school but getting used to the new normal and although we aren’t into pandemics ….. it has been nice to slow down and get to spend more time with the family. Always a silver lining.

We aren’t sure if you know but everyone who works at Mobi used to be a professional athlete of some nature. Weird but true fact. My husband played volleyball, I played basketball and Christine (aka Cho) played basketball as well.

Bringing up little kids in an environment where parents are used to being active has been awesome. Our littles run circles around us in terms of energy and are always up for new adventures. Bring up active little kids when you are quarantined for 4 weeks and counting ….. that’s a whole other story (wink wink)….we’ve just had to get creative!

We’ve talked about open ended play with the toys we produce at Mobi. If you recall, open ended play is important as it gives children the freedom to explore, create, fail and reassess. We’ve brought open ended play into the physical play or activity we do as well. One item that we’ve had in various places around the house is a balance beam. This has been awesome during the last four weeks. We got it from IKEA way back when and it has been a dream purchase.

* Disclaimer: we promise our living room isn't always so "lived" in ;). We've rearranged some things since being quarantined!!!

Our kids are 6 and 2.5 year sold but both are pretty engaged and fearless when it comes to the balance beam.

Here are some things we do on the beam!

• Walk all the way forward on the beam.

• Walk all the way sideways on the beam.

• Cross one foot over the other as you walk sideways on the beam. 

• Catch a ball at every red step on the beam. This includes a parent throwing a ball. We us all different balls. Bigger balls for Kate who is 2.5 and smaller balls for Noah who is 6.

• Make an obstacle course involving the beam. The beam is usually the first obstacle for us. So the kids have to walk across it in various ways, jump off and then run through the kitchen and around “the loop” through the dining room without being caught by the tickle monster (daddy), high five mommy (me!) and get back on the beam.

This is the kids’ favourite beam activity by far. There is something about the calm start, crazy middle and high five at the end that just gets them.

If you don’t have a beam in your house, you can always make a pretend one with tape on the ground, paper or pillows. Although there won’t be height off the ground, these options still give your littles something to focus on and a line to follow!