The Rainy Day Obstacle

A couple of weeks ago it was raining rain outside, but apparently (I was told) it was raining hot lava inside (I'm glad my son imagines things like Hellfire and brimstone).

Anyway, it got me thinking. What if it was raining hot lava? We couldn't exactly go outside to play, but we could get some of that energy out inside...we can make a pillow obstacle course. It;s fun and easy, takes 0 prep time and actually engages the problem solving process.

First, set a starting point and an ending point. Then, for round 1, throw a line of pillows across the floor. Hop, hop, hop...done. That was easy. Now for round 2: make a zig-zag pattern, but don't tell him how to do it. Let him figure it out. Hop, think, hop, think, hop, done. Good. Now for round 3, I got a little bit cynical. I gave him a pillow at the starting point and made a huuge gap from the start to the first pillow. The idea is that he's to throw down the first pillow where needed and go from there.

Overall, the game was a success. He played it for about 30 minutes, which is awesome. You can get really creatve too, make his socks lava proof, but only for 3 steps or one hop. If you have different colored pillows, set a path for him where hee has to hit a certain color combination. The possibilities aren't exactly endless, but you can do a lot with it.

So the next time you have a rainy day, pretend there's 1000 degrees of orange fiery death-liquid on the floor and have some fun!