On your mark, get set, go!
There’s reasoning to the notion of an obstacle-course-themed birthday party thinking about how many real-life obstacles an 8-year-old has surmounted. Each little triumph of language and mobility has been a confidence-building occasion.
On this golden afternoon, the obstacles are pure fun– browsing a slalom course with a wagon and tiptoeing throughout a balance beam– and energy. The barrier course can be set up easily on your yard or at a local park (call ahead to make sure it’s okay), using items found around the home: a wooden ladder, a table, and an inflatable swimming pool.
Collect kids at the starting line and send them through one at a time. Afterward, it’s back to the course, maybe to run in reverse this time.
The Obstacles
A week or 2 before the party, carefully examine your backyard. Make note of slopes and sinkholes (difficulty for ankles) and helpful functions like trees. On the day in the past, established the course, and blow up the balloons. Balloons can be a choking danger for kids; only grown-ups need to inflate them. Monitor kids carefully around balloons, and discard any popped ones instantly. This course required about 150 balloons, inflated with a hand pump, and took 3 grownups about three hours to set up. Number some balloons using a broad-tipped irreversible marker and tie to tall garden stakes; utilize them to mark each barrier.
1. LADDER RUN
The first one’s simple. Kids scamper through the rungs of a wooden ladder (sanded to prevent splinters then painted an uplifting red) laid flat on the ground.
2. BALLOON TABLE
Kids shinny under a table concealed inside a ground-hugging cloud of balloons. Hanging from yarn taped to all sides of the table, the balloons wobble and bump as kids go through.
3. ROPE SWING
Everyone likes to spend time this guaranteed crowd-pleaser. If kids get an excellent running dive and keep knees high, they are likely to clear the inflatable wading swimming pool. A number of big knots incorporated the rope’s end make it simple to get.
4. STABILIZE BEAM
Kids set a good rate and, utilizing all the swagger they can summon, make clear the two-by-four balance beam in no time.
5. NEWSPAPER WALK
Kids are handed three sheets of newspaper and need to put one beneath every action they take. This is the ideal occasion to position at a tricky turn in the course.
6. RED WAGON SLALOM
Stand colorful foam swimming pool noodles in gallon buckets weighted with sand (or soil or stones) and established in a zigzag pattern. Fill a wagon with little water balloons. Kids must pull the wagon around the beyond each bucket without spilling any balloons.
7. HOOP ALLEY
Set out 8 plastic hoops in a straight line. Kids enter each hoop, lift it overhead and drop it behind as they progress. (Reset the row before the next person’s turn.).
8. CRABWALK.
Kids rest on the yard, flex their knees, lean back, and lock their elbows, then “stroll” as straight and quick as they can. This activity is great ridiculous fun for the last 8 to 10 feet, when kids are hurrying to the goal.
Table linen How-To.
A brightly colored disposable table linen becomes particularly festive with the addition of common white stickers or round labels, offered from office supply shops. You can measure out a polka-dot pattern beforehand, putting a faint pencil X at the area where each sticker label will go, or apply them randomly.
Balloon Table How-To.
Utilizing a hand pump (about $5 at party supply stores), fill enough balloons to completely mask a table– it took about 100 balloons to cover our 3-by-6-foot table. Tie yarn or string to each balloon and secure to the table– on top, underside, and all 4 legs– with heavy tape. Wrap table legs with foam cushioning.
Balance Beam How-To.
You can just lay an 8-foot-long two-by-four on the yard. Or you can raise it on 6-by-6-by-12-inch blocks: Drill a hole through each block utilizing a paddle or forstner bit and connect to the underside of the beam with long lag screws. Sand corners, and cushion with pillows.
Map How-To.
A map of the course is offered to each contestant at the start of the party as both a guide and a favor to take home. Each is covered and connected around a rolled-up T-shirt. Numbers, arrows, and dotted lines explain the sequence of challenges. You can reconfigure the occasions any method you like to fit your yard. Produce an easy map of the course by hand, or utilizing a computer system style program, and print or copy onto brightly colored construction paper. Cut the edges with pinking shears.
