Indoor Pumpkin Patch Hop

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My boys are ACTIVE. They love to ride scooters, bicycles, and basically run amok all day long. I’m always desperate to find on the lookout for great products to continue promoting their gross motor skills (especially as the weather turns and their energy is all concentrated indoors!). Ever since I saw these Stepping Domes in Still Playing School’s Planet Hop Activity, I knew we had to have them. Since we’ve bought them, they’ve been used in games of don’t touch the lava, follow the rainbow, and obstacle course activities. They are the best indoor boredom buster ever. Today we  played a simple indoor pumpkin patch hop. It took only minutes to set up but kept my boys busy for an hour!

Indoor Pumpkin Patch Hop

To make the pumpkins, I used green masking tape to represent a stem on each orange domes. Then, we arranged the domes on the floor for hopping (and skipping on, and walking on, and any other movements we could make up!)

When I was first contemplating buying these domes I wondered if they would be too easy for my kids. I even hesitated buying them for  couple months because I didn’t want to invest in a product that wouldn’t challenge them. But with us moving to a state where we’ll be snowed in much of the winter, I took the plunge and tried them. I’m so happy I did because the kids have definitely made every game a physical challenge against themselves!

One way we made this seemingly simple game more physically challenging was to vary their jump techniques: two footed hops, one footed hops, speed hopping, etc.

We also started with the “pumpkins” fairly close together and slowly moved them further and further apart.

Other adaptations of this activity could include counting each pumpkin (forward and backwards) as they hopped. Singing a song while hopping (to develop rhythm). Or even doing some Halloween yoga moves while balancing on each pumpkin dome! How will your kids enjoy these domes? Show me on Instagram!