Movement is essential in the first five years of our lives as it builds critical pathways in the brain. To help your child’s development, as well as support their mental and physical wellbeing, we’ve created a collection of fun activities you can do at home.

Bunny hops

Practice two footed jumping with hands up as bunny ears. Bend the knees to help take off and bend them on landing to cushion the impact. Jumping with feet together is a good progression to developing other skills such as hopping on one foot or leaping forward.

If gravity still has your little one grounded, doing little bounces or squats up and down helps build their muscles to get enough strength to become airborne. You may often see this when they are dancing, so put on some music they like and get bopping.

Develops strength, control, imagination and agility.

Caterpillar crawl

Ask your child to position themselves on all fours. Ask them to walk their hands forward while leaving their knees still. Then ask them to walk their knees forward towards their hands.

Repeat this caterpillar crawl to get the hang of it. This requires some focus so plenty of practice may be required. Finish off by turning into cocoons and butterflies.

Develops body awareness, control, co-ordination, midlines, imagination and agility.

Seal lope

Lie on tummies and wriggle around first with, and then without, using their hands and feet. This helps to develop core muscle strength. It’s always more fun with sound effects and when you join in!

Develops body awareness, control, strength, midlines, imagination and agility.

Crab scuttle

Sitting on the floor, ask your child to put their hands behind them, lean back on their hands and lift them bottoms up. Can they move forwards? Backwards? Sideways? In a circle?

If this position is too challenging do a similar challenge in a crawl.

Develops body awareness, strength, midlines, co-ordination, imagination, agility and flexibility.

Farm gates

Explain you are going to play a game in which the farmer needs some help today opening and closing the gates for their sheep and cows.

To open the gates for the sheep you need to open arms out wide. To shut the gates for the sheep you need to bring the arms in. To open the gates for the cows you need to open legs wide, and shut them when the gate needs to be closed. Start slowly with one of these actions and build from there.

Develops body awareness, language, co-ordination and midlines.