Its Kids Co-op time again, please link up your favourite child orientated posts and check out what everyone else has been up to. Don't forget to leave a comment if you love what you see. This is what I am linking up this week:
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Paralympic fun
(Goblin is 34 Months)
The Paralympics take place in London between 29 August and 9 September 2012. As well as the usual athletics, equestrian and swimming genre, the Paralympics offers some new and unusual sports. One of these is
Goal Ball, a sport that has me on the edge of my seat with anticipation. This is an amazing sport played by blind and partially sighted athletes. All players are blindfolded so that no amount of sight gives an unfair advantage. The game is a bit like handball (or five aside football played with your hands) but you can't see the ball. Instead the ball has bells in it and the players must identify where the ball is using their hearing. The game is surprisingly fast and the athletes are incredibly skilled.
I love the fact that Goal ball requires the players to use hearing rather than sight. Its a great game for getting kids to practice listening. So Goblin, Hublet and I had a go. At nearly three years old Goblin's catching abilities aren't great so we didn't play proper Goal Ball. Instead I put some bells in a balloon. Goblin refused to wear a blindfold but would wear a scarf draped over his head. I shook the balloon to see if he could identify where the balloon was. Then I'd throw it at him and he had to try and react by attempting a catch. We used a balloon for two reasons, firstly its easy to get the bells in, and secondly when it hit him full in the face it didn't hurt. This brings a whole new element to sensory play. Goblin liked Goal Ball, but mainly he liked throwing the balloon at a blindfolded Hublet.
You can find the Paralympic Goal ball schedule
here
And now to the linky
I'm sharing this at
Thanks for talking about the paralympics. How inspiring! Love how they are all blindfolded. It really does level the playing field. Vicky from www.messforless.net
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to see others talking about the Paralympics with their kids. Thank you for your post and the opportunity to link up.
ReplyDeleteNot just talking Amy, we are going to three events over the next fortnight. Can't wait.
DeleteA great idea and looks like fun, I would try this with little man as his catching skills are not great but he is petrified of balloons xxx
ReplyDeleteHe's not alone, I hate it when balloons pop. I found the metallic/pearlised ones tend not to pop a easily. But you could get a foam ball, slice it in half, pop a bell in it and glue it together.
DeleteDid you enjoy the Paralympics? My kids are fascinated! Thanks for linking up. x
ReplyDeleteYeah we had a fab time (see post about our visit) and we went again on Tuesday and got front row seats to the athletics and goblin was hooked, and this Friday we are going to murder ball (wheel chair rugby)
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of goal ball. It sounds very interesting. I like your rendition of it with the balloon.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing at the Sunday Showcase. :)
That looks such a fun game. Not the goal ball the throwing balloons at a husband game. Fab!
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