LITTLE R'S PHYSICAL SKILLS AT 46 MONTHS

Little “R” has been working very hard on becoming more independent at the park. This has sometimes been quite hard for both her and I. Finding the line between supporting her and also encouraging independence and fostering her confidence to believe she can do these things without my help, is a hard one indeed!

We started with balancing. Moving from me holding both her hands to just one hand. Then one hand while on the stepping logs but no hands while she crabs sideways along the beam. Just a couple of weeks ago she started to show the courage to try the logs herself and the elation and pride on her face when she completed it by herself was fantastic to see!! She no longer asks for help with this and is keen to show others her new found skill!

The next thing she has learnt to master is this ladder on the climbing frame. When she was younger she would crawl up the steps. Last summer she started to climb up the angled ladders. My heart in my mouth and hovering close by in case she slipped, but trying very hard to not look worried and to keep reassuring her she was doing well. This vertical ladder has been the last part of her journey on mastering the climbing frame. It requires a lot of upper body strength to pull yourself up to the next rung and the vertical design of it means that you have to hold your whole body weight rather than leaning forwards and using your arms and legs to support yourself and crawl up.

She is showing much more confidence on the log bridge as well. She often tells other children to stop jumping or to be more careful as she walks along. She no longer panics when another child steps on to the bridge and makes it move.

She is keen to try climbing up the pole and would love to slide down it, but so far this is one challenge too far for her. I am keen not to put children in to a situation that they are not ready to manage for themselves and the pole is one of these situations.
I stand by the pole and I encourage her to try but she is not yet confident enough to lean forwards and take the jump.

She watches her friend as she learns this new skill and really wants to be able to do it as well, but she is just not quite ready yet.

Soon she will be ready! Like a baby bird ready to take that first leap from the nest! You can do it!!!!

We have however learnt to climb up on much more challenging parts of the play frame!

Another big achievement has been the ability to make the swing move, by herself! We still get a lot of “I can’t do it” but this is said as she “IS” doing it! So I am giving lots of praise and enthusiasm and slowly, slowly you can see her start to believe that she “CAN” do it!

Backwards…. and Forwards….. and backwards…. and forwards!

We have come a long way in 6 months and her self esteem has had a huge boost. This will only serve to do good things for her in other areas of learning! As hard as it is, we sometimes have to let our little ones struggle through the hard things so that they can experience small failures and learn from them. That is the first stepping stone to success and the feeling from finally being able to do that thing, that you have worked so very hard to achieve, is worth all the tough bits! Top that off with a little shiny star for their diary to show their parents and you have one VERY happy child!

LEARNING INTENTIONS AND IDEAS FOR EXPANDING LEARNING:

To provide the little “R” with the self confidence and experiences to develop her physical skills in the park
To support her but also foster independence.

To continue to offer lots of opportunity for large physical moment. To celebrate her achievement’s as she masters the new skills and to support her as she continues to learn some of the more tricky challenges!

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE LEARNING:

Little “R” loves the park and is always keen to play. She often relies quite heavily on me following her around and holding her hands on much of the equipment. For the pat 6 months I have been moving slowly away and encouraging more independence. Praising her efforts and cheering her along! She has moved from a frustration and giving up frame of mind, to a more determined and successful one. By stepping back a bit and letting her try and fail, she has realised that if she keeps trying she will be able to do it! This has motivated her to keep on trying even when things are tricky. It has led to less frustration and tears in general, as she has learnt to deal with short lived failures and use these to motivate herself to try harder.

She shows great pride in her achievements and then repeats the action over and over, showing friends and laughing if it goes wrong. Happily trying again.

Today’s play, meets the following EYFS Prime and specific areas