We love scooter boards and crawlers, those 4 wheeled toys with the flat surface that you can sit on, lie on and work across the room. Scooter boards provide a useful tool for working on mobility, direction, motor planning and gross motor skills. Be sure your scooter board is safe! Any floor scooter you acquire should have free rolling, no pinch wheels and are typically best for indoor use, lying stomach down or all fours (doggie) position. Never stand on a scooter board. Let's take a look at some great scooter activities.
Let's Pretend Shop with Scooter Boards
Place your favorite sensory tools, balls, toys, object or pretend food around the room. Have your kids roll around either sitting or lying on stomach, face down, to go "shopping." As they pick up an item, they can then take it to a centrally located bin or basket.
Relay With Your Feet on your Scooter Board
This works sitting on either a standard scooter or a saddle scooter. On your mark, get set, go! Have a relay race across the room. You can do a relay with several students or you can use a timer to reach a target and try and beat your own time.
Scoot Backwards All the Way
Why go forward when you can go backwards? In fact, for some children, going backwards is easier since you can push with your legs as opposed to pulling with them. But you can also encourage going forward in one direction and then backwards on the return trip.
Hold On!
Grab a rope or stretch band and have your child hold on while they are pulled across the room. Easy does it. Start out slowly until they have learned how to maintain their balance. This is safer when done face down on the stomach.
Visual Motor Combo with your Scooter Board
Encourage your scooter rider to roll up to a favorite puzzle or building set and put a piece in place. Now roll back and get another piece and repeat.
Drive Down the Highway
Watch out for the construction zone! Place cones, chairs or obstacles around the room or gym. You can even create a road with masking tape. Have your scooter driver try to stay on the road while making his way around the obstacles. Scooter boards are not just fun. They promote balance, motor planning, core strength, and teach direction and navigation skills. We'd be happy to help you select a scooter board today so you can get rolling! Share your favorite activities with us too.
Check out our scooters and other ride-on toys.
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