subject: Educational Toys – 8 Exciting Ways To Use Your Play Tunnel Tent In A Challenging Obstacle Course [print this page] Educational Toys 8 Exciting Ways To Use Your Play Tunnel Tent In A Challenging Obstacle Course
Tunnel tents might seem little entertaining to us big people, but this simple kind of toys can be the greatest fun for children. In fact, these toys can teach them a lot, since children can use them for uncountable creative games. A much loved game is making an obstacle course, and a tunnel tent fits in perfectly with this game. But if you think it's just for crawling through, you are mistaken. There are many more ways how you can use your child's tunnel tent to set up a challenging and educational obstacle course. And there are many more skills to learn than just crawling.
Tunnel tents come in 3 different designs that can be used as obstacles:
Simple tunnel
Dead-end tunnel
Tent-tunnel-combo
Obstacles #1-2: Using a simple tunnel tent
(1) The easiest way is to use a simple tunnel tent to crawl through. This will teach your toddler how to crawl, and it can also help to improve crawling skills. Crawling as a cross-movement is very important for coordination. To encourage your child to crawl through the tunnel tent, you can put a favorite toy on the other end, or look through yourself and call every now and then.
(2) If your child is an experienced crawler, you can challenge him more by making him bring an object through the tunnel, for example push a ball or carry a soft toy. With one hand busy, your child needs to find new ways of crawling, or a creative way of carrying the toy without losing one hand for crawling.
Obstacles #3-4: Using a dead-end tunnel tent
(3) Some tunnel tents can be closed up at one end. You can then put an object (e.g. a ball or soft toy) on that end before closing it up and make your child crawl through the tunnel tent, fetch the toy and crawl out again (like I described in obstacle 2). If your child is still small, she might be able to turn around in the tunnel tent (which is a good motor planning exercise). The larger the child, the more challenging will turning become, especially with a toy in one hand.
(4) The other option is for your child to crawl backwards through the tunnel. This is even more difficult, since crawling backwards is something your child is not used to, and she will need to put more concentration and planning into learning this new way of moving.
Obstacles #5-8: Using a tent-tunnel-combo
(5) It would be easy to just send your child through the combo. A greater challenge is to give a certain way that must be gone, for example: In through the red tunnel, out through the blue one. Or go in, and then out through the tunnel to your right. You could even stick cards with numbers onto the entrances and tell your child to enter and exit at a certain number. This way, you can practice memorizing ways, numbers or colors.
(6) Another possibility is to make your child carry something through the tent and tunnel tents, as described in obstacle 2.
(7) You could also let your child search the tent for a certain object, or collect the pieces of a wooden puzzle or other objects into a bag or basket. This doesn't need to be restricted to the tunnel tent. Some pieces can also be hidden somewhere else along the obstacle course.
(8) Lastly, you can set a task that your child needs to perform in the tent combo. This can be anything from a single activity like completing a puzzle or construction game in the tent, to a series of tasks, e.g. rolling a ball through the first tunnel, do some simple sums in the tent, and collect some puzzle pieces in the third tunnel.
I bet, now tunnel tents seem no longer boring to you. Another factor that makes them great obstacles is that most of them can be used inside and outside. Tunnel tents usually have a popup design which makes it easy to set them up anywhere in no time. And besides the fact that they can be used in so many ways, their length makes them the best crawling obstacles ever.
