Engaging your child in big motor movements is good for their strength and coordination, as well as discharges their wiggles and worries of the day. Limit access to electronics so your child is available to move! Any opportunity you can entice your child to join you in daily motor activities will have tremendous benefits. It’s also important to have designated spaces at home that are safe for motor play with your child.

Many motor skills can be built through participation in daily activities.

  • Pull and push a laundry basket, or a garbage bin out to the driveway, or carry a grocery bag to and from the car
  • Use a sponge and a small squirt bottle to wipe the table before and after meals, or to clean the windows
  • Use laundry pegs to hang table napkins nearby or artwork on a hanging line
  • Water the plants with a small watering can or spray bottle
  • Sweep using a small sweeper and dustpan, or a mini vacuum
  • Pull a clean-up bin around the house to collect toys
  • Cooking and baking that involves stirring and pouring, squeezing, pushing with a roller, poking, and making shapes

Creative play can help with motor development.

  • Arts and crafts such as stringing, gluing, cutting, and painting
  • Thematic, imaginative play that involves dressing up, drawing messages, treasure maps, and signs, and making decorations

Use soft items indoors to build ball skills.

  • A sturdy punching balloon hanging to bat with hands 
  • Throwing and kicking a soft beach ball in the hallway or playroom
  • Play catch with a favorite stuffy, or try to toss the stuffies into a bucket

Create an opportunity for your child’s body to move in different orientations. 

  • Create a sensory pathway with chalk that includes jumping on shapes, spinning, hopping, and walking on a squiggly line
  • Scavenger hunts to collect indoor or outdoor treasures from a picture list
  • Build forts with furniture cushions and sheets/blankets and use laundry pegs to hold the sheets in place
  • Create indoor obstacle courses that involve crawling under and through, hopping, balancing, and going forward and backward. 

Integrate yard work and gardening

  • Collect rocks to create a rock garden and paint the rocks
  • Collecting leaves and branches in a small wheelbarrow, wagon, or bucket
  • Digging, planting, and watering

Kiegan Blake is an Occupational Therapist, Behavioral Specialist, and Director of Maui Center for Child Development. For more information, please call 808-873-7700 or visit MauiChildDevelopment.com.