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Ideas for Creating an Obstacle Course for Children

You can enhance your children's playtime by adding an obstacle course to your back yard or school grounds. Not only does an obstacle course add a sense of adventure to playtime, it also helps children develop and grow in a number of different ways. Obstacle courses help develop motor skills and spatial awareness. They teach problem-solving and experimentation. They can also increase the level of exercise your children are getting, especially if you make getting through the course into a race. You can build your own obstacle course for very little money, using many common items you may already have.

Tires
- Old tires have many potential uses in an obstacle course. Set them in two rows flat on the ground, side by side. Put the tires in one row slightly behind or ahead of those in the row next to it. Use this setup as a track for the children to run through, stepping only inside the tires in the right row with their right feet, and only in those in the left row with their left feet. Hang a tire from a tall tree or pole and have the children jump up to grab it. Alternatively, have them throw balls or beanbags through the hanging tire. Lay the tires on the ground in a zig-zag pattern and have the children run the zig-zag for the classic weaving drill. You can even use them as weights for the children to carry. You can find cheap tires at tire retreading stores. Check them for worn patches where the belts are poking through, or sharp objects buried in the rubber, before using them. (See References 2)
Boards
- Lengths of wood, such as 2x4s, also offer a wide variety of options for a children's obstacle course. Lay one on the ground for a balance beam. It requires just as much balance to walk it as a gymnast's balance beam, but because it is lower to the ground, it is safer for the children. Cut the boards to different lengths and lay them down to make a maze. You can screw or nail them together for a permanent maze or just lay them next to each other, so that you can keep rebuilding it and making it new. You can sink a board into the ground like a pole and paint a target at the top for children to hit with a ball or beanbag.
Hula Hoops
- The common hula hoop also offers a variety of obstacles. Bury one end in the sand of a sandbox to make an obstacle the children must climb through. Lay them down near each other and make the children jump from one to the next, without touching the ground in between. You can also lay them out in two rows for stepping drills, as you did with the tires.
Boxes
- Use boxes to make a maze. You can tape them together for a permanent maze or leave them unattached for a maze you can rebuild. Cut holes in the bottoms of large appliance boxes to make obstacles for children to crawl through.

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