Try a different kind of gross motor activity with a heavy lifting idea from Amber!
A lot of the time when we talk about gross motor activities, we think about running, jumping, and balancing.
Those are fun and important, but lifting is an important physical skill to develop, too. Lifting – not just for the gym!
Build Toddler Muscles with Heavy Lifting
I tried to think of a fun way to develop my boys’ lifting skills and strength and came up with this simple activity. It’s an easy way to use their gross motor skills in a novel way.
As a bonus, it ended up being a great activity for taking turns, and using fine motor skills to get the cars into the jug.
To DIY your own heavy lifting activity, you’ll need:
- An empty water jug or large bucket.
- Small toys, rocks, balls, etc.
We used 10 or so small cars. But any small toys will be totally fine!
Play Heavy Lifting Hide & Seek
Think of this game as an Easter egg hunt, with a twist.
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I hid the cars around the play area. Then I invited my kids to go around finding them and putting them in the jug.
The twist: They needed to bring the jug around with them while they hunted!
This activity can get some big energy out because carrying these big jugs or buckets around is tough work for their little bodies! Depending on what little object the jugs are filled with, it can get pretty heavy too.
I wasn’t expecting it, but it turned into a great turn-taking activity for my boys! They took turns, one at a time, putting the cars in the jug.
Once they found everything, they worked together to turn the jug upside down to dump the cars out again.
Super Simple Heavy Lifting for Toddlers
After the first round of hide-and-seek, my boys just put the toys into the jug and dumped them out over and over. Super simple, but they loved it!
There wasn’t as much carrying this way, but that act of lifting and dumping was hard work. At one point my 3-year-old declared “This is so heavy! I’m so strong!”
My 1-year-old loved hearing that “clunk” sound as he dropped toys in, then peeking in to see them all before dumping again.
I love having simple activities that use random things we have on hand! I think this will be a new go-to for us.
Lifting isn’t just for the gym! What activities do you like to do to encourage lifting?
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