Summer Activities for Toddlers

To Help Boost Gross Motor Skills

Summer is here- and it is the perfect season for movement. If your kids are anything like mine, they thrive outside in the summer. As a physical therapist and mama of 2, I wrote this post to encourage gross motor play outside to strengthen muscles, improve balance and coordination, enhance endurance, and support overall motor development. None of the toys and items that I mention in this blog post are absolutely necessary, but if you'd like to shop some of them, head on over to my Amazon Storefront.

What are Gross Motor Skills and Why are they Important?

Gross motor skills involve the large muscles of the body that help children perform everyday movements such as walking, running, and jumping. Providing opportunities to practice gross motor skills can lead to improved strength, balance, endurance, coordination, body awareness, all leading to improved independence and confidence with daily activities.

I have created a list of my top gross motor activities to try this summer with your littles.

Top Gross Motor Activities for Summer

1. Obstacle Courses

Create a backyard obstacle course using cones, pool noodles, hula hoops, chalk, or household items. Encourage children to crawl under objects, jump over obstacles, and balance on lines. And don’t be afraid to take inside toys outside! I bring our balance beam and stepping balance stones outside for obstacle course days. If you have a wheelchair user, I love to use chalk and cones to create obstacle courses to weave around cones and follow chalk in a figure-8 motion to improve coordination! 

These activities can improve:

• Balance and coordination

• Motor planning

• Global body strength

• Body awareness

2. Water Play Activities

Sprinklers, splash pads, and baby pools can provide excellent movement opportunities in addition to amazing sensory input.

Try:

• Running through sprinklers for endurance

• Carrying buckets of water for strength

• Sliding from toddler slide into the baby pool for vestibular input and climbing practice

• Water balloon tosses for coordination

• Squatting to collect toys from a shallow pool for strength

• Stepping in and out of baby pool to work on balance

  
  

3. Playground Adventures

Playgrounds encourage kids to climb (ladders, rock walls, steps, netting structures), swing, slide, and even learn to navigate around other kids that are playing. Monkey bars and climbing structures are also great for cross-body coordination and improving grip strength. Playgrounds are a great place to practice risky play, where children learn what their bodies feel safe doing. It is important when they are practicing this that we are quiet and give them time before intervening, as they are learning!

4. Nature Walks and Hiking

Exploring parks, trails, and botanical gardens is another favorite of mine. These kinds of adventures offer different terrain such as gravel, grass, pavement, as well as hills and valleys which challenge balance and intrinsic foot strength. My favorite kind of shoe for this outing is a flexible-sole, low top shoe. Coordination will improve as kids learn to step around and over different obstacles like rocks and tree roots. If you want an added challenge, encourage them to wear a backpack with their water! This changes their center of gravity and adds a bit of weight. We have a new goal in our house to go for a nature hike at least once a month!

5. Wheels!

Whether using a bicycle, tricycle, balance bike, or scooter, wheeled activities provide valuable motor practice. For younger kids, ride-on toys and walking toys (like push walkers or shopping carts) are great to encourage endurance!

Benefits:

• Promotes dynamic balance

• Develops leg strength

• Improves coordination and timing

• Improves muscular and cardiovascular endurance

I have a rule in my home that if you want to ride anything with wheels, a helmet must be worn!!

6. Sidewalk Chalk

It seems like sidewalk chalk is more of a fine motor activity, but you can also use chalk to create obstacle courses including:

• Hopscotch or other fun jumping patterns- change it up by increasing jumping distance, height, one foot vs. two feet.

• Balance beams- curved, straight, wide and narrow!

• Follow directions such as walking around a spiral, spinning, squatting, etc.!

I like doing these barefoot for an added sensory experience, but if pavement is hot, I recommend a flexible shoe!

Benefits to this type of activity:

• Improves hopping and jumping skills

• Improves single-leg balance and tandem walking

• Develops coordination and motor planning

• Encourages creative movement especially when the kids help to create the obstacle course

• Vestibular involvement with spinning and jumping

  
  

7. Ball Games

Don’t forget about simple ball games and activities! 

Ideas include but are not limited to:

• Golf and/or putting

• Soccer- kicking and dribbling

• Basketball- dribbling and shooting the ball

• Bowling- rolling the ball at a target

• Tee ball- throwing, hitting, and running bases

• Cornhole- throwing underhand into target at various distances

  
  

Physical Therapy Benefits:

• Improves hand-eye and foot-eye coordination

• Develops timing, motor planning and motor control

• Strengthens upper and lower extremities

• Encourages social interaction and team play!

  
  

8. Animal Relay Races

These can be done inside on a rainy day, but I love to bring animal races outside to the grass. I prefer to use bean bags from a start point to an end point, choosing a different animal to walk like for each round.

Some animals to try:

• Bear walks- hands and feet

• Crab walks- hands and feet with belly towards the sky

• Frog jumps- starting in low squat and hopping up

• Penguin waddles- turn feet out and waddle back and forth

• Bunny hops- hopping on two feet

• Horse- galloping

• Flamingo- skipping

  
  

Physical Therapy Benefits:

• Strengthens core and shoulder girdle muscles

• Builds endurance

• Improves coordination and motor planning

  
  

9. Swimming Activities

If you have access to a swimming pool, there are lots of things to do in the pool to improve global strength, endurance, and coordination.

Try:

• Using a kickboard and pushing off the pool wall

• Kicking on a kickboard alternating feet and also doing two feet at once (like a frog)

• Put a pool noodle under armpits and work on treading water

• Sitting on a pool noodle (straddle or sit like a swing) for core strength and balance

• Climbing out of and jumping into the pool

  
  

Making Activities Accessible for Every Child

As physical therapists, we recognize that every child develops at their own pace and everyone has different abilities. Activities can be modified to match abilities and ensure success. Remember, we want it to be fun for everybody! If you need additional ideas, do not hesitate to reach out to me so that I can help you!

Consider:

• Offering hand support for balance activities

• Using high contrast toys/balls for visually impaired individuals

• Reducing obstacle complexity

• Considering the surface that the activity is being made on (for example, using a smooth surface for wheelchair users instead of the grass)

• Finding hiking trails that are accessible for assistive devices

• Using larger balls or a balloon for making catching and throwing easier

• Providing frequent rest breaks

• Celebrating effort and completion rather than perfection or “first place”

  
  

Final Thoughts

Moving your body does not have to be complicated and you can be as creative as you want to be! Kids enjoy being outside and this is where so many critical physical skills are developed. We love to incorporate outside play MOST days of the week- whether it’s a 10 minute walk to our mailbox, 3 hours at the pool, or 6 hours at the zoo. We recognize it is HOT so you can do things to make it more enjoyable- finding shade, providing fans, cooling towels, and popsicles. If you are looking for links to any of the things I mentioned in the activities, head to my Storefront.

It is absolutely not necessary, but we love to track our time outside because it is fun to look back and see how we have grown outside all year long! Let me know if you want the link to the app we use- it is free and you can add pictures which is fun!

The moral of this story is to get outside, get moving, and make the most of this summer!