Exercise in the forest
A foot never quite lands where it should when the ground is roots, moss and sloping soil. The same jump or lunge that is easy on a gym floor suddenly needs balance, gaze and concentration all at once – practise with the pictures below.
♀Exercise in the forest
A child does a lunge exercise among the trees in the forest.
About this visual support
Find three spots in the forest before you start: a stump to step onto, a smooth stretch of path to run on, and a tree to stretch against. When each exercise belongs to a particular place, a child no longer has to hold the instruction and the terrain in mind at the same time.
That need is bigger outdoors than indoors. Roots that stick up, moss that gives way and ground that tilts force the body to correct itself constantly, and those corrections take energy away from the exercise itself. A child already busy watching where their feet land has little room left for spoken instructions.
This is where visual support earns its place: a picture shows the finished movement and can be looked at again between rounds, without anyone repeating themselves. Let the forest be the hard part and the picture the easy one. The images here are free to download, and if you want the exercises in sequence with a timer, you can try Routined for 14 days.