Right before the pandemic hit I had ordered these Lily & River Climbers for our three centers and surely had to get one for my son who at the time just started crawling.The Little Climber is a moveable playground that will grow with your little one from their crawling stage all the way to the age of five.
Researchers are uncovering the values of one of the most developmentally important forms of play - climbing. As humans from birth we’re explorers, thrill-seekers, problem-solvers, and above all, curious, therefore we are simply born to climb. We nautrally don’t just love climbing for the excitement and the challenge - there are biological reasons at play that attract us to it. Climbing aids in mental and physical development, and has been shown to improve creativity, memory, and critical thinking abilities. Climbing works almost every major muscle group in the body, so children increase upper body strength (by using their arms and hands), their lower body (by using their legs), develop core stability, muscle control and balance when taking part in exploring a climber such as Lily and River.
The other benefits of climbing are:
Improved Dexterity: Through climbing, children begin to develop their fine motor skills including dexterity, grip and grasp.
Climbing Confidence: Young children may feel nervous when facing climbing for the first time, but through trial and error and risk-taking, children will learn to be more open to begin taking on new climbing challenges every single day.
Physical Strength: Climbing allows children to build their physical strength and gross motor skills leading to a healthier and active lifestyle.
Problem-solving skills: When approaching new climbing challenges, young children develop critical thinking skills when discovering different routes to climb and traverse.
Risk Taking: Climbing equipment allows children to manage and assess risk which is an important life skill to learn from a young age. Children will begin to understand when they are doing something that is too dangerous while discovering their limits when overcoming challenges. Most importantly they will have a deeper awareness of their body.
Our Little Climber is pretty much always out. Since the local parks are closed because of COVID-19, we sometimes even take it outside when the weather is nice. To enhance the experience and encourage more challenges I also add these activities from time to time:
1) Grab the Rainbow Scarves- I attached these movement scarves to ignite him to climb up and pull the scarves. Our simply explore the colors and texture.
2) Ball Pit Slide- The great option about the ramp is you can get rock climbing option and flip it over to used it as a slide. I place our ball pit for him to slide in.
3) Ramp- Experimenting with cars and balls on the slide side of the ramp to test which will go faster or slower.
4) Placing the Ramp on Different Heights- You can adjust the ramp to different heights gradually to encourage risk taking.